In a patent-infringement lawsuit against Medtronic Inc. (MDT) [1], Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (EW) [2], plans to ask the court to prevent its rival from selling a new heart-valve device in the U.S.

Medtronic was set to begin selling its CoreValve by April 2014 pending Food and Drug Administration clearance This clearance is  one of the biggest medical-device approvals anticipated by investors this year. In the period since November 2011 until present  Edwards has had the U.S. market to itself for the aortic valves inserted without cracking the chest.

The  devices of the both producers  are sold outside the U.S. . This market is expected to reach $3 billion by 2019. Medtronic announced that  it plans to appeal this  court decision on Edwards’s Cribier patent. The company Medtronic had appealed an earlier decision on the Anderson patent through the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear it.  In the last year in the case which is still pending, Medtronic paid Edwards $84 million in initial damages.

News dated January 16, 2014.