A Medical Device Daily

Synergetics USA (O'Fallon, Missouri) said it has filed a patent infringement suit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against Peregrine Surgical (Doylestown, Pennsylvania) and Innovatech Surgical (Camden, New Jersey) charging that the two firms are manufacturing and selling products under the Adjustable Intuitive brand name that infringe on Synergetics' laser probe.

Innovatech and Peregrine also are defendants in another Synergetics suit relating to the company's patent on an adapter system.

Synergetics said Innovatech was formed by two former Synergetics employees, Charles Hurst Jr. and Michael McGowan, who Synergetics successfully sued for trade-secret misappropriation last year.

“Innovatech and Peregrine were notified long ago of Synergetics' pending patent and yet continue to ignore our intellectual property rights,“ said Gregg Scheller, president and CEO of Synergetics USA. “Litigation seems to be our only alternative.“

Synergetics also reported that its wholly owned subsidiary, Synergetics Inc. (St. Charles, Missouri), has received notice of a new patent issuance on a movable optic-fiber, directional laser probe, U.S. patent No. 6,984,230.

Synergetics USA resulted from the September 2005 combination of Valley Forge Scientific (Oaks, Pennsylvania) and Synergetics Inc., bringing together their respective capabilities in bipolar electrosurgical generators and design, and manufacture of microsurgical hand instruments (Medical Device Daily, Sept. 23, 2005).

Synergetics USA manufactures medical devices for use primarily in ophthalmic surgery and neurosurgery and for other healthcare applications. Its products are designed and manufactured to support micro- or minimally invasive surgical procedures. It also manufactures and sells bipolar electrosurgical generators and other generators, based on its DualWave technology, and complementary instrumentation and disposable products for use in neurosurgery, spine surgery, pain control and in dental applications.