A Medical Device Daily

Impliant (Princeton, New Jersey), a developer of novel spine arthroplasty alternatives to fusion surgery, reported that the European Patent Office has confirmed the validity of one of its key patents following an opposition by Archus Orthopedics (Redmond, Washington) that concluded with oral proceedings on May 12 in Munich, Germany.

This patent, EP1578314 B1, originally issued to Impliant on May 30, 2007, involves among others the company's flagship product, the TOPS System, a total posterior arthroplasty device designed to treat lumbar spinal stenosis with or without facet arthrosis and spondylolisthesis. Archus challenged the patent on the grounds of being too broad, but the European Patent Office rejected the opposition and upheld every claim of the patent.

Impliant also said that it has been granted two additional patents in the U.S. The first, (US No. 7,537,613, granted on May 26, is another patent that directs to the TOPS System. The second, No. 20050197705, already a patent in Europe (EP1646338), entails a unique translateral spinal disc replacement.

In other patent news, RainEarth reported that its contractual partner in China, Beijing RainEarth Technology (Beijing), has submitted a patent application for its second generation of blood dialysis.

This second-generation blood dialysis device has several new features and advantages, including a lower broken membrane rate, a higher gap rate, enhanced biological compatibility for the hollow fiber membrane, and an increased dialysis rate.

Beijing RainEarth has applied for patents in a variety of areas with the State Intellectual Property Office in China.