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Foreign Patent Disputes Are Off-Limits For U.S. Courts

By Darryl J. Adams
March 27, 2007

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ('the Federal Circuit' or 'the court') recently addressed the jurisdictional reach of U.S. courts to adjudicate patent disputes involving foreign patents. In Voda v. Cordis, 476 F.3d 887 (Fed. Cir. 2007), a split panel held that even if the district court had the authority to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the foreign patent claims, the district court abused its discretion by exercising that authority. The court's opinion rests largely on comity and judicial economy considerations.

Background

Dr. Jan Voda holds U.S. and foreign counterpart patents related to catheters for use in interventional cardiology. In 2003, Voda sued Cordis, a medical device company owned by Johnson & Johnson, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, alleging infringement of three U.S. patents by Cordis' XB catheters. Subsequently, Voda moved to amend his complaint to include claims that Cordis also infringed Voda's European, British, Canadian, French, and German patents by selling the same XB catheters in those foreign jurisdictions.

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