Abbott Laboratories v. Miracor Medical SA

This Inter Partes Review (IPR) proceeding involves a dispute between Abbott Laboratories and Miracor Medical SA concerning US patent 11754077. Abbott Laboratories is a prominent American multinational medical devices and healthcare company, specializing in diagnostics, medical devices, nutrition, and pharmaceuticals. Miracor Medical SA is a European medical device company, based in Awans, Belgium, focused on developing innovative therapies for patients with impaired cardiac function, specifically those suffering from acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and heart failure. Both parties are operating companies in the medical device sector.

The IPR, IPR2025-00116, challenges the patentability of claims within US Patent 11754077, titled "Device to assist the performance of a heart." While there is no "accused product" in the context of an IPR, this patent is related to the technology developed by Miracor Medical, notably its PiCSO® Impulse System. The PiCSO system is a medical device designed to improve cardiac function and reduce infarct size following an acute myocardial infarction through pressure-controlled intermittent coronary sinus occlusion, utilizing a specialized balloon catheter and console.

This case was heard before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), a specialized administrative tribunal. The IPR was officially filed on January 7, 2025, and a Final Written Decision was issued on June 11, 2026. The PTAB venue is significant because it offers a faster and generally less expensive alternative to district court litigation for challenging patent validity. IPRs are limited to challenges based on prior art (patents and printed publications) for obviousness or anticipation, and the petitioner's burden of proof is a "preponderance of the evidence," which is lower than the "clear and convincing evidence" standard required in district courts. This IPR is notable as it is one of several IPRs filed by Abbott Laboratories against Miracor Medical SA (including IPR2025-00096, IPR2025-00113, and IPR2025-00115), indicating a broader patent dispute between these medical device competitors. The patent at issue is also involved in a related district court infringement case, Miracor Medical SA v. Abbott Laboratories, in the Northern District of Illinois (1:23-cv-16257), suggesting Abbott's IPR filings are a defensive strategy against alleged infringement. Miracor's PiCSO system has received FDA Breakthrough Device Designation and CE Mark, highlighting its innovative nature in the cardiac treatment market.

The primary legal developments for this patent dispute center around the related district court infringement case, Miracor Medical SA v. Abbott Laboratories, Case No. 1:23-cv-16257 (N.D. Ill.), and the various Inter Partes Review (IPR) proceedings filed by Abbott Laboratories against Miracor Medical SA, including IPR2025-00116.

District Court Litigation: Miracor Medical SA v. Abbott Laboratories (N.D. Ill. 1:23-cv-16257)

• Filing & Initial Pleadings: Miracor Medical SA filed the patent infringement lawsuit against Abbott Laboratories and Thoratec LLC on November 27, 2023, in the Northern District of Illinois. Miracor's complaint asserts infringement of six patents, including U.S. Patent No. 11,754,077. Abbott and Thoratec have filed counterclaims.
• Pre-trial Motions: On February 4, 2025, the court granted Abbott's motion for a partial stay of proceedings pending the resolution of Abbott's IPRs. An order to temporarily stay case deadlines was issued on February 13, 2025, vacating further proceedings and all remaining deadlines, such as final contentions, claim construction exchanges, and claim construction briefing, until the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued institution decisions for the IPRs addressing the asserted patents, including 11,754,077.
• Claim Construction (Markman) Outcomes: Due to the stay, the case has not yet reached the claim construction stage.
• Discovery Milestones: While the general proceedings were stayed, the court set parameters for the parties' ongoing discovery.
• Trial Events, Verdict, and Post-trial Motions: The case is currently stayed, and no trial has occurred.
• Settlement, Dismissal, Judgment, or Appeal: The district court case remains stayed pending the outcomes of the related IPRs.

Parallel PTAB IPR Proceedings: IPR2025-00116 (and others)

• Filing & Institution: Abbott Laboratories filed the IPR petition for U.S. Patent 11,754,077 (IPR2025-00116) on January 7, 2025 (though one source lists November 27, 2024, as the filing date, January 7, 2025 is typically the official filing date for IPR petitions). The PTAB instituted trial in IPR2025-00116 on June 11, 2025. This IPR is part of a broader strategy by Abbott, which filed several IPRs against Miracor's patents asserted in the district court litigation, including IPR2025-00096, IPR2025-00113, and IPR2025-00115, challenging patents 11,351,356, 11,351,357, 11,376,415, 11,572,879, 11,674,517, and 11,754,077.
• PTAB Procedural Changes (2025-2026): Throughout 2025 and 2026, the USPTO and PTAB underwent significant changes in IPR institution practices. Effective October 20, 2025, USPTO Director John Squires announced that he would personally determine whether to institute trials for all IPR and Post-Grant Review (PGR) proceedings, covering both discretionary considerations and the merits. Routine institution decisions would be issued as summary notices without detailed reasoning, with detailed decisions reserved for novel or important issues. This led to a significant drop in IPR institution rates, which were around 4% by December 2025. These changes emphasize discretionary denials based on factors such as "settled expectations" (where a petitioner had long known of a challenged patent) or inconsistent positions between district court and USPTO proceedings.
• Final Written Decision: The PTAB issued a Final Written Decision in IPR2025-00116 on June 11, 2026. The specifics of this decision regarding the patentability of claims in US Patent 11754077 would be detailed within the decision itself. While the overall outcome for IPR2025-00116 is listed as "Final Written Decision" and "Terminated" on June 11, 2026, the specific findings (e.g., whether claims were found unpatentable) are not publicly available in the search results.
• Effect on Litigation: The institution of the IPRs led to a stay of the district court litigation. The Final Written Decision in IPR2025-00116 will likely have a significant impact on the continued district court proceedings concerning U.S. Patent 11,754,077, potentially leading to the dismissal of claims related to that patent if all challenged claims are found unpatentable. The parties would then need to file a joint status report with the district court to propose whether the stay should be lifted, continued, or modified, and how to reset vacated deadlines.

Abbott Laboratories is represented by attorneys from Winston & Strawn LLP in IPR2025-00116.

The counsel of record for Abbott Laboratories in this IPR are:

• Scott M. Border (Lead Counsel)

  • Firm: Winston & Strawn LLP
  • Office Location: Not specified in the provided search results, but Winston & Strawn has offices in major legal hubs.
  • Relevant Experience: Scott M. Border is listed as counsel for Abbott Laboratories in multiple IPRs against Miracor Medical SA, indicating experience in PTAB proceedings for medical device patents.

• Charles B. Klein

  • Firm: Winston & Strawn LLP
  • Office Location: Not specified.
  • Relevant Experience: Charles B. Klein is listed as counsel for Abbott Laboratories in the related IPRs.

• Saranya Raghavan

  • Firm: Winston & Strawn LLP
  • Office Location: Not specified.
  • Relevant Experience: Saranya Raghavan is listed as counsel for Abbott Laboratories in the related IPRs.

• Nimalka R. Wickramasekera

  • Firm: Winston & Strawn LLP
  • Office Location: Not specified.
  • Relevant Experience: Nimalka R. Wickramasekera is listed as counsel for Abbott Laboratories in the related IPRs.

Abbott Laboratories also employs in-house intellectual property counsel. These in-house roles often support patent litigation and PTAB proceedings, particularly in the medical device industry. For example, Abbott has positions for Senior Counsel, Intellectual Property, with preferred qualifications including experience handling PTAB/EPO Oppositions and supporting patent litigation.

I'll research counsel for the patent owner (Miracor Medical SA) in this IPR.

Strong leads. Let me confirm the actual filings in IPR2025-00116 and gather attorney backgrounds.

Let me verify the exact filings in IPR2025-00116 and check for later counsel changes and the parallel district court.

Counsel of record for the adverse party (Patent Owner Miracor Medical SA) — IPR2025-00116

Threshold clarification. IPR2025-00116 is an inter partes review, not a district-court infringement action, so there is no "defendant" in the Rule 12/FRCP sense. The party adverse to Abbott Laboratories in this proceeding is the Patent Owner, Miracor Medical SA (respondent). In the parallel N.D. Ill. case, Miracor Medical SA v. Abbott Laboratories, No. 1:23-cv-16257, the roles reverse (Abbott and Thoratec LLC are defendants), and their counsel — the Winston & Strawn team — is already covered in the "Plaintiff representatives" section above. Below is the Patent Owner's PTAB team.

Barnes & Thornburg LLP — counsel of record for Miracor Medical SA

At the March 5, 2026 oral argument (consolidated across the six Abbott v. Miracor IPRs, including -00116), the Patent Owner's appearances were recorded as: Ronald Cahill, Derek Roller, and Todd Vare, Barnes & Thornburg LLP, 555 12th Street NW, Suite 1200, Washington, D.C. 20004.

Sourcing and verification notes

• Docket entries in IPR2025-00116: Paper 3 (Patent Owner's Power of Attorney, Dec. 4, 2024); Paper 4 (Patent Owner's Mandatory Notices, Dec. 4, 2024); Paper 6 (Notice of Intent to Designate a Provisionally Recognized PTAB Attorney as Back-up Counsel, Dec. 18, 2024, with Ex. 2001 certification of Todd G. Vare); Paper 7 (Updated Mandatory Notices, Dec. 27, 2024, with corrected Ex. 2002). See the Unified Patents PTAB docket: https://portal.unifiedpatents.com/ptab/case/IPR2025-00116 and the IPVerse mirror: https://ipverse.greyb.com/ptab-web/cases/case-details/IPR2025-00116.
• Caveat on the current lead-counsel designation: I verified the text of the revised § 42.8(b)(3) designation (Cahill as lead; Vare, Larsen, Hagedorn as back-up; dated March 2, 2026) from the IPR2025-00114 filing (https://www.docketalarm.com/cases/PTAB/IPR2025-00114/Abbott_Laboratories_v._MIRACOR_MEDICAL_SA/docs/03-02-2026-Patent_Owner/...). I did not retrieve the corresponding paper in -00116, so the exact -00116 paper number/date for that substitution is unverified — though Cahill's self-identification as lead counsel at the consolidated hearing, and the fact that Barnes & Thornburg filed substantively identical notices across all six IPRs, make the same designation in -00116 highly likely.
• No in-house counsel for Miracor appears in the PTAB filings I reviewed; all designations are outside counsel at Barnes & Thornburg. Miracor's retained experts (Boris Leschinsky, Ex. 2015; Dr. Robert Gallegos, Ex. 2017) state they were retained "by Barnes & Thornburg LLP on behalf of Miracor," confirming the firm is the sole designated representative.
• Nothing in this record is sealed or under a protective order as to counsel identity; the appearances are public.
• Metadata discrepancy to flag: the case metadata lists the IPR as "Filed 2025-01-07," but the Board's Notice of Filing Date (Paper 5, Dec. 12, 2024) accords the petition a filing date of November 27, 2024, and third-party dockets show the Petition and its exhibits dated 11/27/2024. The 2025-01-07 date does not match the docket.
• Also flagging for the merits section: the prior "Key legal developments" text says the "specifics of this decision… are not publicly available." The June 11, 2026 Final Written Decision date is from metadata; I could not locate the FWD text itself in the sources retrieved, and no Federal Circuit appeal is confirmed in the record I reviewed.