Medtronic’s(NYSE:MDT) legal battle with Edwards Lifesciences over patent infringement and its transcatheter aortic valve products has been going on for years and last week a federal appeals court affirmed a lower court’s ruling in Edwards’ favor allowing that Medtronic had, in fact, willfully infringed on a single Edwards’ patent. It asked Medtronic to pay damages, butthe court did not bar Medtronic from selling the related products within the U.S. in the future. Instead, it sent the case back to the lower court to determine whether Medtronic’s CoreValve transcatheter aortic valve system should be barred from being sold in the U.S. CoreValve, which is sold in Europe, is currently being tested in the U.S. Not surprisingly, the legal tussle is having a cost impact. On Tuesday, while discussing Medtronic’s fiscal second-quarter earnings, chief financial officer Gary Ellis provided some initial estimates of what he expects the burden to be.
