Heartflow sues Cleerly over cardiac AI patents

Heartflow has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Cleerly in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The complaint seeks permanent injunctive relief and damages.

Filed April 13, the case alleges that Cleerly’s Ischemia, Plaque Analysis, and Compare products infringe 6 Heartflow patents tied to AI-based cardiac imaging technology.

Heartflow lists the asserted patents as U.S. Patent Nos. 11,288,813; 11,382,569; 9,770,303; 9,839,399; 9,607,386; and 11,013,425. The company said the patents cover technology developed before the introduction of Cleerly products.

Court filings describe the asserted technology as covering areas including anatomic structure segmentation, blood-flow estimation from vessel geometry and physiology, coronary plaque vulnerability prediction, numerical evaluation of vasculature, correction of artificial deformation in anatomic modeling, and vessel-characteristic estimation from digital images.

Heartflow also alleges that Cleerly founder James K. Min, MD, served as a Heartflow consultant from 2012 to 2017 and later used confidential information to develop competing products. Reuters reported that Min said Cleerly is confident in the originality of its technology.

Heartflow is seeking damages, treble damages for alleged willful infringement, attorneys’ fees, and a permanent injunction preventing further alleged infringement.

The case is Heartflow v. Cleerly, No. 2:26-cv-00292, in the Eastern District of Texas.