A Medical Device Daily

Pioneer Surgical Technology (Marquette, Michigan) said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed in favor of its QuantumPedicle Screw, saying that the device does not infringe Stryker 's (Kalamazoo, Michigan) U.S. patent No. 6,565,565.

In 2005 Stryker accused Pioneer of infringing the '565 patent, related to their 90D pedicle screw product. Pioneer filed a suit to resolve the matter. Stryker requested a judgment against Pioneer, but instead the court entered a judgment against Stryker.

Stryker appealed the District Court ruling, but the Court of Appeals affirmed the decision against Stryker on Aug. 11.

Pioneer is a maker of spinal and orthopedic implants.

Diomed Holdings (Andover, Massachusetts), a developer of minimally invasive medical technologies, including the EndoVenous Laser Treatment (EVLT) for varicose veins, reported that U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton has ruled that Diomed's U.S. patent No. 6,398,777 is valid and enforceable.

In granting Diomed's motion for summary judgment, the company asserted that the court rejected defenses advanced by defendants AngioDynamics (Queensbury, New York) and Vascular Solutions (Minneapolis) that Diomed's patent was invalid and unenforceable.

The court denied separate motions by each of the parties for summary judgment on the issue of infringement by the defendants, in effect ruling that Diomed is entitled to proceed to trial on its claims for an injunction and damages against the defendants.

In January 2004, Diomed began legal action in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts against AngioDynamics, seeking injunctive relief and damages for infringement of Diomed's U.S. patent No. 6,398,777, which covers the endovascular laser treatment of varicose veins.

Diomed asserts that it acquired exclusive rights to the patent from the five inventors of the procedure in September 2003. Diomed initiated similar actions against Vascular Solutions and two other competitors, Total Vein Solutions (Houston) and CoolTouch (Roseville, California) later in 2004.

“We now expect that the time until we begin trial has been accelerated, and that the only issues at trial will be limited to those relating to infringement and damages,” said James Wylie Jr., president/CEO of Diomed Holdings.

Diomed develops minimal and micro-invasive medical procedures that use its laser technologies and disposable products.

In other court-related news, Align Technology (Santa Clara, California), developer of the Invisalign method of straightening teeth without wires or brackets, reported that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) has declared two out of a total of 71 claims in Align's U.S. patent No. 6,398,548 (the '548 patent) and four out of a total of 10 claims in U.S. patent No. 6,544,611 (the '611 patent) to be invalid as “obvious.”

The CAFC's decision reverses an earlier California District Court decision that upheld the validity of these claims in a patent infringement suit between Ormco, a division of Sybron Dental Technologies (Orange, California) and Align.

The claims in question address, in addition to other things, the marking of appliances to indicate order of use. The majority of the claims in the '548 patent, including claims that address methods of fabricating aligners, digital data sets or computer-generated models to fabricate appliances, are unaffected by the appeal and the CAFC's ruling. The '611 patent does not contain claims related to digital data, computer-generated models or methods of fabrication.

Align said it is considering whether to seek rehearing of the CAFC's decision or to pursue other options. The company was founded in 1997 and received FDA clearance to market Invisalign in 1998.