Bloomington, Ind. – The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois denied without prejudice a motion by Cook Inc. related to the court’s October 1, 2002 permanent injunction order. In the motion, Cook had asked the court to rule that the injunction does not prohibit Cook from purchasing stents and balloon catheters from Guidant Corporation on an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) basis.

Today, the court declined to rule on that issue and suggested that a declaratory judgment might be more appropriate to the issue at hand.

“We were pleased that the court did not object at this time to our proposed OEM relationship with Guidant,” said Kem Hawkins, president, Cook Incorporated. “We are carefully considering the court’s ruling and will proceed at the appropriate time.”

With international headquarters in Bloomington, Ind., privately held COOK® (www.cookgroup.com) is a leading designer, manufacturer and global distributor of minimally invasive medical device technology for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Since its founding in 1963, Cook has created innovative technologies for stents and stent-grafts, catheters, wire guides, introducer needles and sheaths, embolization coils, tissue-engineered medical biomaterials, vena cava filters, implanted cardiac lead extraction equipment and other minimally invasive medical devices.