SensorMedics Agrees to Settle Patent Dispute

SensorMedics, a medical instrumentation company, will pay $2.8 million to a Minnesota firm to settle a patent infringement dispute.

St. Paul-based Medical Graphics Corp. said it expects to receive an initial payment of about $975,000, after deductions for legal costs, by the end of the year. Additional semiannual payments during an eight-year period will total more than $1.8 million after legal costs, the company said. Further terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

Medical Graphics, a manufacturer of diagnostic equipment, filed a lawsuit against SensorMedics in April, 1994, alleging patent infringement, deceptive trade practices and unfair competition related to its 1984 patent covering a cardiopulmonary testing system used to analyze a person’s exercise capacity. Medical Graphics sought unspecified damages and an injunction against SensorMedics.

SensorMedics filed a countersuit the following month, charging Medical Graphics with unfair competition and infringement of its 1983 patent for related “breath-by-breath” analysis.