McAndrews, Held & Malloy Secures Victory For Axiom Worldwide
08.29.10
McAndrews, Held & Malloy announced today that it has secured a victory for its client Axiom Worldwide, Inc., in a case involving electrical nerve stimulation medical devices used to treat patients with various medical disorders. The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division, granted Tampa, Fla.-based Axiom’s motion for judgment as a matter of law of no infringement under the doctrine of equivalents.
The action overturned a jury verdict of infringement that was entered in September 2009 in the lawsuit against Axiom. Honolulu, Hawaii-based Hako-Med USA, Inc. had accused Axiom of infringing its U.S. Patent No. 5,573,552 (the ‘552 patent) relating to its technology for an electrotherapeutic machine. Axiom’s electrical nerve stimulation medical device involved in this case, EPS8000, directly competes with Hako-Med’s machine.
The Court found that Hako-Med failed to clearly demonstrate how Axiom’s accused device met the strict test for infringement under the doctrine of equivalents.
“On behalf of our client, we are pleased with this outcome and feel that justice was ultimately served,” said Patrick J. Arnold, Jr., a shareholder at McAndrews and lead trial counsel on the case. “The doctrine of equivalents simply cannot be used by a patent owner to ask the jury to have mercy on the patent owner. Its strict test must be met and it certainly was not met here.”
McAndrews attorneys Patrick J. Arnold Jr., David Z. Petty and Sharon A. Hwang represented Axiom.