Vascular Solutions LLC et al. v. Medtronic Inc. et al., No. 2024-1398 (Fed. Cir. Sept. 16, 2024); No. 0:19-cv-01760 (D. Minn.)
A long-running patent dispute between Teleflex and Medtronic recently ended by settlement after a remand that was unusual even for seasoned patent litigators. Teleflex accused Medtronic’s Telescope guide-extension catheter of infringing a family of catheter patents. Medtronic prevailed in district court when the court held a repeated claim phrase, “substantially rigid portion/segment,” indefinite — in other words, the phrase was too unclear to tell a person of ordinary skill in the art what the patent claims covered. But the Federal Circuit vacated that judgment, held that the district court had taken too rigid a view of the claims, and sent the case back for further proceedings. What happened next made the case especially noteworthy: the original district judge recused himself because he was “at a loss” on how to proceed consistently with the appellate
