SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jan. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- CardioGenesis Corporation
(Nasdaq: CGCP) and PLC Medical Systems, Inc., a subsidiary of PLC Systems Inc.
(Amex: PLC), announced today that they have settled all patent litigation
between the companies, both in the U.S. and in Germany, with respect to PLC's
U.S. Patent No. 5,125,926 and related international patents (PLC patents) for
laser synchronization technology used in transmyocardial revascularization
(TMR) procedures.
Under the Settlement and License Agreement signed by the parties today,
PLC grants CardioGenesis a non-exclusive worldwide license to the PLC patents.
CardioGenesis will pay PLC a license fee, and minimum royalties, totaling
$2.5 million over an approximately forty-month period, with a running royalty
credited against the minimums. CardioGenesis will take a charge to earnings
of approximately $2.3 million in the fourth quarter of 1998 as the present
value of the license fee and minimum royalties. Other financial terms were
not disclosed.
The Settlement and License Agreement does not apply to any products or
technology that do not utilize the PLC patents nor does the agreement provide
PLC rights to any CardioGenesis intellectual property. With respect to the
previously announced pending business combination of CardioGenesis with
Eclipse Surgical Technologies, Inc., neither Eclipse nor its products were the
subject of the dispute. Eclipse TMR products do not use synchronization
technology.
CardioGenesis Corporation, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., develops,
manufactures and markets proprietary systems including disposable products, to
perform intraoperative transmyocardial revascularization, catheter-based
percutaneous myocardial revascularization, and thoracoscopic transmyocardial
revascularization, to treat patients afflicted with debilitating angina.
CardioGenesis catheter systems and probes deliver laser energy to create
channels in oxygen-deprived (ischemic) regions of the heart muscle
(myocardium). CardioGenesis holds patents for systems and method of
percutaneous myocardial revascularization, and transmyocardial
revascularization, and has a number of patent applications pending worldwide.
For more information on the company and its products, visit the CardioGenesis
website at http://www.cardiogenesis.com.
SOURCE CardioGenesis Corporation
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Related links:
www.cardiogenesis.com
CONTACT:
Allen W. Hill, President and CEO, or Richard
P. Powers, Executive Vice President and CFO, 408-328-8500, both
of CardioGenesis; or general information, Ann Trunko, or
analysts, Kate Rajeck, 415-986-1591, both of The Financial
Relations Board
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