US District Court Enters Final Judgment in Favor of Smith & Nephew; Permanent Injunction Prohibits Arthrex Inc. From Selling Infringing Medic...( ANDOVER Mass. Nov. 20 /- A US Distric...)

ANDOVER, Mass., Nov. 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- A US District Court judge in Oregon yesterday ruled that it granted an injunction in favor of Smith & Nephew's (NYSE: SNN; LSE: SN) Endoscopy Division. This injunction prohibits privately held Arthrex Inc. of Naples, Fla., from manufacturing or selling medical devices that infringe a patent exclusively licensed to Smith & Nephew by Dr. John O. Hayhurst of Portland, Ore. The injunction takes effect 60 days following the final judgment (on January 18, 2009).

A jury determined in June that Arthrex willfully infringed this patent by marketing and selling Bio-SutureTak, PEEK SutureTak, Bio-PushLock and PEEK PushLock suture anchors (see Editors Note) used in various minimally invasive soft tissue repair surgeries, and awarded Smith & Nephew Endoscopy $14.7 million for infringement through the end of 2005.

The injunction will not affect sales of current Arthrex PushLock anchors. During the case Arthrex stopped selling the infringing first generation PushLock anchors and replaced them with modified PushLock Anchors. Smith & Nephew and Dr. Hayhurst have filed a second lawsuit against Arthrex seeking an injunction against the newer versions of PushLock anchors as well as Arthrex's Bio-Composite SutureTak anchors.

In October the judge also granted Smith & Nephew prejudgment interest in the amount of $1.5 million and ruled that the court will award additional damages for Arthrex's infringement after 2005.

"We spend a significant amount of time and effort with surgeons to develop innovative technologies that provide real benefits to patients around the world," said Michael Frazzette, president of Smith & Nephew Endoscopy. "We are fully committed to defending our intellectual property from being infringed by Arthrex or any other com
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