A Beverly Hills surgeon is suing medical device giant Medtronic for alleged patent infringement.

In a Nov. 12 suit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, Dr. Shirin Towfigh said Medtronic “knowingly copied” her design for a hernia treatment device. The suit specifically calls out Medtronic’s Dextile anatomical mesh, which, according to the company’s website, is “intended to be used for the reinforcement of soft tissues during repair of inguinal hernias by laparoscopic approach.”

Towfigh’s suit said that Medtronic copied mesh designs that she shared with the company as the two were “evaluating a potential business collaboration.” At the company’s request, Towfigh in September 2016 visited Medtronic’s manufacturing site in France to meet with the company’s research and development team to “further discuss her ideas around hernia repair,” according to the suit.

The suit said that Towfigh “then heard nothing from Medtronic” until around February 2017, when a company VP told her that “Medtronic’s legal department didn’t believe her patent application would be granted.” Though the VP had expressed interest in continuing to work with Towfigh on a redesign of the hernia mesh products, the company went on to draft “its own patent application covering the inventive concepts conceived by Dr. Towfigh,” the suit said.

“Medtronic has a history of trying to use its financial clout to outspend and out- maneuver physician-inventors like Dr. Towfigh when they seek damages for wrongful use of their intellectual property, including where that physician-inventor initially sought to collaborate with Medtronic,” the suit said.

Towfigh’s suit asks the court to enter a judgment that awards her company “all appropriate damages for the infringement that has occurred, and any continuing or future infringement of the Asserted Patents.”

When reached for comment, a Medtronic spokeswoman said that the company “just learned of the case and is reviewing the complaint.”

“Medtronic believes in its innovation and has a long history of respecting the intellectual property rights of other innovators,” the spokeswoman said.

The suit names Towfigh and her medical device business Hexagon Health Inc. as plaintiffs.

Medtronic is legally headquartered in Ireland, but keeps an operational headquarters in Fridley.

“Medtronic’s improper use of Hexagon Health’s hernia mesh designs has cost Dr. Towfigh significant financial gain and created a disincentive for other physician-entrepreneurs to enter the medical device marketplace with innovative products for patients in need,” said Nicholas Groombridge, Hexagon Health’s attorney and partner at Groombridge, Wu, Baughman & Stone LLP, in a statement issued Tuesday.