J&J win in patent suit

Johnson and Johnson received some happy news yesterday when a federal judge awarded its cardiac device unit $1.2 billion in a longstanding battle between the megacompany, Boston Scientific and Medtronic over a stent device.

The U.S. District Court in Delaware entered a final judgment benefiting Cordis Corporation, a Johnson & Johnson company, for patent infringements by Boston Scientific and Medtronic from cases from 2000 and 2005 involving the Palmaz balloon expandable stent. In all, the battle has been raging for just over a decade. Previous juries found that Boston Scientific's and Medtronic's stent products and ordered them to pay $703 million and $521 million, respectively.

The final amount includes accrued interest. The best part? The stent the companies were fighting over is no longer on the market.

- read the Wall Street Journal story
- find out more at MSN Money
- see MarketWatch's article