ATLANTA (MARCH 28) – LawFuel – In an amended judgment, The United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma yesterday awarded Dr. Jan K. Voda $12,078,538 in trebled compensatory damages and $2,201,139 in attorneys fees and court costs. Also, Defendant Cordis Corporation, a Florida-based Johnson & Johnson company, was denied its motion for judgment and a new trial.
Yesterday’s amended judgment and ruling come after a May 2006 jury in the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma found that Cordis Corporation willfully infringed three patents held by Oklahoma City cardiologist Dr. Jan K. Voda. After rejecting attacks on validity of the patents, the jury awarded Dr. Voda a 7.5% royalty, a judgment worth over $10 million over the life of the patents. Because the jury found the infringement to be willful, the judge had the discretion to enhance the damages by awarding up to three times the actual damages as well as attorneys’ fees. In September 2006, the judge entered judgment awarding double damages, prejudgment interest and attorneys fees for a total award of $10.3 million. When Dr. Voda received new evidence after trial of previously undisclosed infringing activities, he moved to amend the judgment, and the court did so and changed its previous award of double actual damages to treble actual damages.
Dr. Voda, a native of Czechoslovakia, fled the then-Communist country in the late 1970s to practice medicine and develop his lifesaving inventions in the United States. Since that time, he has patented a number of catheters and other medical devices used in cardiology. Dr. Voda’s patents infringed by Cordis relate to guiding catheters (specially shaped flexible rods) for performing angioplasty (removing blockages) in the coronary artery.
Cordis Corporation is a Florida-based Johnson & Johnson company. The medical device company, specializing in vascular disease management, has 7,000 employees worldwide.
Dr. Voda was represented by a team of Kilpatrick Stockton attorneys led by IP attorney Mitch Stockwell and including Charlie Henn, as well as John Kenney of McAfee & Taft. Cordis Corporation was represented by Willkie Farr & Gallagher, led by John DiMatteo.
About Kilpatrick Stockton
Kilpatrick Stockton LLP is a full-service international law firm with more than 500 attorneys in nine offices across the globe: Atlanta and Augusta, GA.; Charlotte, Raleigh and Winston-Salem, NC.; New York, NY; Washington, D.C.; London, England; and Stockholm, Sweden. Kilpatrick Stockton’s delivery of innovative business solutions provides results-oriented counsel for corporations, from the challenging demands of financial transactions and securities to the disciplines of intellectual property management. Collaboration among Kilpatrick Stockton’s corporate, litigation and intellectual property attorneys provides knowledgeable and proactive guidance for companies at every stage of the business life cycle.
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