This case is the second appeal to this court in a patent litigation between Cross Medical Products, Inc. (Cross Medical) and Medtronic Sofamor Danek, Inc. (Medtronic). Cross Medical accuses Medtronic's polyaxial screws of infringing U.S. Patent No. 5,474,555 (the '555 patent). In the prior appeal, this court set aside a permanent injunction issued by the United States District Court for the Central District of California and reversed the summary judgment of infringement and validity of claim 5 of the '555 patent in favor of Cross Medical. See Cross Med. Prods., Inc. v. Medtronic Sofamor Danek, Inc., 424 F.3d 1293 (Fed. Cir. 2005) (First Appeal). In this appeal, the district court issued another permanent injunction after Medtronic redesigned its polyaxial screws in an attempt to avoid the '555 patent. Cross Med. Prods., Inc. v. Medtronic Sofamor Danek, Inc., SA CV 03-110-GLT, slip op. at 2 (C.D. Cal. April 8, 2005) (Trial Court Opinion). The court determined that claim 5 of the '555 patent was infringed under the doctrine of equivalents by Medtronic's redesigned screws, but that claim 7 of the '555 patent was not infringed by either the original or redesigned screws. Id., slip op. at 14, 20. Notably, the district court did not have the benefit of this court’s opinion in the First Appeal before issuing the second permanent injunction.
Because Medtronic's redesigned polyaxial screws do not infringe the asserted claims literally or under the doctrine of equivalents, this court reverses the grant of summary judgment of infringement of claim 5. On the redesigned screws, the district court should grant Medtronic's motion for summary judgment of non-infringement. The remaining issues, which involve the validity of claim 7 and infringement of this claim by Medtronic's original polyaxial screws require reconsideration in light of this court's prior opinion in the First Appeal. Accordingly, this court reverses-in-part and vacates-in-part the district court's findings on the remaining issues and remands.
