A Medical Device Daily

VNUS Medical Technologies (San Jose, California) reported that the company has received a notice of allowability by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office for a patent application that is a continuation of one of the three patents in the VNUS patent infringement lawsuit against suppliers of endovenous laser products.

The newly allowed VNUS patent application was filed as a continuation of VNUS' U.S. patent No. 6,769,433 (the '433 patent). The continuation patent uses the same patent specification as the '433 patent and is published as patent publication number U.S. 2004/0267258.

VNUS has sued several endovenous laser manufacturers Diomed Holdings (Andover, Massachusetts) Angiodynamics (Queensbury, New York) and Vascular Solutions (Minneapolis) — for what it said is infringement of its patents, including the '433 patent. That lawsuit is scheduled to begin trial against non-bankrupt defendants Angiodynamics and Vascular Solutions on June 23.

The newly allowed VNUS patent application contains claims that recite methods of applying energy from an elongate member leading to occlusion of a vein, where the elongate member may be a fiber optic and the energy may be light energy.

Significantly, the company said that before deciding to allow the new VNUS patent, the patent office reviewed references that include those cited by the defendant endovenous laser companies during the patent litigation in their attempt to invalidate the '433 patent.

"The decision by the U.S. Patent Office to grant a continuation of the '433 patent in light of the references cited by our competitors is consistent with our long-standing contention that the patents asserted in our infringement suit are valid," said Brian Farley, VNUS president/CEO. "Furthermore, we believe that the newly allowed claims further broaden our strong patent position and help to confirm that VNUS pioneered the key endovenous methods required to successfully treat venous reflux."

VNUS makes devices for the minimally invasive treatment of venous reflux disease, a progressive condition that causes the varicose veins afflicting 25 million Americans.