Advanced Interventional Sues Competitor : Medical: Laser manufacturer’s lawsuit alleges that Spectranetics Corp. infringed on patents for device used by cardiac surgeons.

Advanced Interventional Systems Inc. said Monday that it is suing a Colorado competitor over what it says are violations of four patents.

The suit, filed Friday in federal court in Santa Ana, alleges that Spectranetics Corp. of Colorado Springs has infringed on Advanced Interventional’s patents on the Excimer Laser. The device, unlike conventional lasers, emits a cold beam. That is considered to be a better alternative to other laser beams because cardiac surgeons can use it to cut away plaque that forms inside arteries around the heart without destroying arterial tissue. Clogged arteries are a major cause of heart attacks.

Advanced Interventional officials said that their company, a surgical laser manufacturer based in Irvine, began designing its cardiac system in the early 1980s and received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in January, 1992, to begin selling it. Spectranetics received FDA approval for its device last month.

Richard B. Crosby, Advanced Interventional’s chief financial officer, said the company warned Spectranetics more than a year ago that a lawsuit would be filed if Spectranetics’ device reached the approval stage. “We have kept them informed of our intention,” Crosby said. “In that sense, none of this was a surprise.”

Spectranetics officials would not comment Monday. In a prepared statement issued during the weekend, the company defended its device, saying it is not in violation of Advanced Interventional’s patent.

In Monday’s trading on the NASDAQ market, Advanced Interventional’s stock closed at $3.25 a share, down 12.5 cents.

The suit is the second filed in connection with the Excimer Laser, illustrating the increasing competition in the medical-device manufacturing industry.

In December, a federal judge in Washington reversed an earlier order for Advanced Interventional to stop making its laser. A Virginia company, Pillco Limited Partnership, had alleged that Advanced Interventional had violated its intellectual rights to the laser’s concept.

Another Orange County company has also been involved in litigation over one of its inventions. Birtcher Medical Inc. in Irvine recently won a long-running dispute involving the argon gas coagulator, a device used in “bloodless” surgery.