Boston Scientific, Medtronic settle suits

WASHINGTON - Boston Scientific Corp., the world's largest maker of heart stents, and Medtronic Inc., the biggest maker of electronic heart devices, agreed to settle two patent-infringement lawsuits and put three others on hold.

The fights are over stents, tiny mesh tubes used to prop open heart arteries after they are cleared of fat. Financial terms weren't disclosed, though they will have no impact on earnings, Boston Scientific said yesterday.

The agreements "will allow us to focus our efforts and resources on developing new products and therapies that improve patients' lives," Hank Kucheman, a senior vice president for Boston Scientific, said in a statement.

The settlement included a case where a federal jury in Marshall, Texas, told Natick, Mass.-based Boston Scientific to pay $250 million to Medtronic in a dispute over balloons that inflate heart arteries. A federal judge had cut the award to about $19 million and thrown out two of the three questioned patents before the settlement. With interest, the amount grew to $24.6 million under an order signed Jan. 23 by US District Judge T. John Ward.

The other four cases, in California and Texas, hadn't yet gone to trial.

Medtronic, in a separate statement, said the agreement won't affect fiscal third-quarter earnings, which it is scheduled to report on Feb. 19.

The company said it will continue to pursue patent-infringement claims against another heart device maker, Abbott Laboratories.