Medical Device Solutions, LLC

The plaintiff, M Co., which designs and develops prototypes of medical devices, sought to recover damages for breach of contract and unfair trade practices from the defendants, A, a neurosurgeon and inventor, and I Co., which A and a partner had formed to develop medical devices for use in spinal surgery. In November, 2004, L, an owner of M Co., and A entered into a written agreement under which the parties were to share equally any compensation that resulted from the sale and/or licensing of a medical device conceived of by A, or any version thereof, for use in spinal surgery. The parties' one page contract provided that any required funding or financial commitments were to be part of a separate agreement they would negotiate later and that A was to promptly notify M Co. of any compensation he received for the device or any versions thereof. A further agreed that he was not under any contractual agree- ment with any other company concerning the device. At the time the parties entered into the written agreement, they also agreed orally that M Co. would create design drawings and a prototype of the device, and, at that time, A gave M Co. his initial drawings of the device. By early 2005, M Co. had prepared a prototype of the device and successfully installed it in a cadaver. M Co. thereafter utilized a different design and produced another prototype that it gave to A by October, 2005. By that time, A had become dissatisfied with M Co.'s work and continued to work on developing the device on his own without informing M Co. In December, 2005, A applied for a patent on an anterior intervertebral spinal fixation and fusion device that he had developed with the help of his son. A thereafter did not respond in writing to a letter from L in February, 2006, concerning the value of M Co.'s services and, in July, 2007, formed I Co. A also did not respond to e-mails from L in 2008 requesting an update on the project, and, in May, 2008, A and his son, without informing M Co., as