BOGOTA, Colombia – Ziptek Mexico, from Hermosillo, Mexico, is working to revolutionize the sutures market with an innovative product that is already making its way to the U.S. surgical orthopedic device market. Plans to expand across Latin America are progressing.

The case of Arthrex v. Smith & Nephew, Inc., has raised a host of questions about the appointment of judges to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), and witnesses at a congressional hearing said a Supreme Court review might be two years in coming. Any such resolution might not clear out the thicket of underlying legal questions, however, and thus the witnesses urged Congress to take action quickly even as the Federal Circuit considers an en banc hearing of the matter.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has decreed that the regulations governing appointment of judges to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) violate the U.S. Constitution – a decision that gives a medical device maker a new bite at patent litigation, but which also raises the question of whether a large number of PTAB decisions will have to be relitigated.