The U.S. Supreme Court on June 21 rejected Medtronic's bid to overturn an award of more than $112 million in royalties to an Indiana spine surgeon-inventor, Law360 reports.
The court dismissed the devicemaker's appeal, allowing the jury's award to Rick Sasso, MD, founder of Carmel-based Indiana Spine Group, to stand.
Dr. Sasso won the royalties decision in an Indiana state court in November 2018. The ruling found that Medtronic failed to pay Dr. Sasso royalties he was contractually owed for spinal and screw implants he invented and sold to the company more than a decade prior.
Medtronic paid Dr. Sasso more than $20 million in royalties, but he said the company breached its obligations and stopped paying him along the way.
The devices — a screw delivery system and the Vertex Reconstruction System — became one of Medtronic's largest product lines, hitting annual sales of over $200 million, according to The Indiana Lawyer.