Yea that took awhile to read.
I am not a laywer, and we do not have all the information.
The patent was applied for, by Spinal Kinetics, in 2002/3 and over the years, have refined the final design, I guess that decided the strands would better fit into a slot, or hole, than try to land the strands in a groove...,
Go figure, this is what they are arguing about, seems J&J has a similar product in some stage of design, and their product has the holes, also, so they are arguing that SK cannot use this design.
If SK is arguing this in California, this may be their biggest mistake, they need to take it somewhere that has a Judge and Jury, that will listen to common sense, not money.
That is my take.