Good story in Forbes about the plight of smaller companies who can be bankrupted by patent lawsuits and threats from the medical device giants:
Going Toe To Toe With Medical Device Giants
Robert Langreth, 11.18.10, 11:20 AM EST
Forbes Magazine dated December 06, 2010Frank Manganaro stood tough when rivals tried to sue his firm into oblivion.
He’ll draw blood: Manganaro at Nova’s glucose meter factory in Bedford, Mass.
Francis Manganaro is a scrapper. In the last six years the wiry 68-year-old chief executive of Nova Biomedical, a privately held maker of blood-testing equipment for diabetics, has fended off attacks from behemoths Abbott Laboratories ( ABT – news – people ), Roche ( RHHBY.PK – news – people ) and Medtronic ( MDT – news – people ). All have claimed that Nova either infringed on their patented technology or stole their trade secrets. With just $165 million in revenue, Nova arguably couldn’t afford even one protracted legal battle, but Manganaro refused to be bullied.
“My partners and I decided we would rather go down with the ship and lose the company than to give in to people who behave like that,” he says.
