Covidien Sues Ethicon For Patent Infringement - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Healthcare products company Covidien plc (COV) Tuesday said it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company (JNJ), in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut. The lawsuit alleges that Ethicon's latest ultrasonic surgical product, the Harmonic ACE+7, infringed three Covidien patents.

In an earlier case over other Ethicon ultrasonic surgical products, the same federal court had found that these patents were valid and had been infringed and resulted in a damages award against Ethicon of more than $175 million, a finding that is currently under appeal. The new suit asks the court to bar Ethicon from continuing to manufacture and sell the Harmonic ACE+7 device and to grant damages for the patent infringement.