The patent wars over the design of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) devices seemed to disappear roughly nine years ago, but there is at least one more episode for Dublin-based Medtronic plc before the company could lay the issue to rest. A jury declared that Medtronic is liable for more than $100 million in damages over alleged infringement of a patent held by Broomfield, Colo.-based Colibri Heart Valve LLC, but the contested patent has expired, and Medtronic said it intends to pursue the matter further.
Four members of the U.S. Senate have inked a draft bill that would require the FDA and the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) to set up a task force designed to improve communication between the two agencies. This would appear to replicate a bill introduced during the 117th Congress, but not ultimately passed, and there is little clarity this early in the legislative cycle as to the prospects for this latest iteration.
Some patent litigation cases don’t require a deep effort to interpret claims, but the litigation between Agilent Technologies Inc., and Dionex Softron GmbH, forced the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to determine whether a written description adequately captures the use of a piston in a liquid chromatograph to avoid nullification of the claim.
The process used by Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office PTO) to review patent disputes has become an issue yet again, thanks to a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). According to the GAO report, 75% of respondents to a survey of PTAB judges said that oversight practiced at PTO affected their independence in adjudicating cases, but that view was not universally held by these judges, leaving stakeholders with a vague picture as to the nature of the processes handled by the PTAB.
The process used by Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office PTO) to review patent disputes has become an issue yet again, thanks to a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). According to the GAO report, 75% of respondents to a survey of PTAB judges said that oversight practiced at PTO affected their independence in adjudicating cases, but that view was not universally held by these judges, leaving stakeholders with a vague picture as to the nature of the processes handled by the PTAB.
Intellectual property continues to be a pressing issue for makers of medical devices and diagnostics as demonstrated by the ongoing patent dispute between Alivecor Inc., and Apple Inc., which is being waged on multiple fronts. An administrative judge at the International Trade Commission (ITC) sided with Alivecor in the dispute, opening the door to an import ban while the Patent Trial and Appeal Board found that 20 of the claims in the disputed patent are unpatentable.
One of the big regulatory and pandemic stories of 2022 with global impact was the June 17 World Trade Organization’s (WTO) agreement on a five-year intellectual property (IP) waiver for COVID-19 vaccines and their components.
One of the big regulatory and pandemic stories of 2022 with global impact was the June 17 World Trade Organization’s (WTO) agreement on a five-year intellectual property (IP) waiver for COVID-19 vaccines and their components.
U.S. Supreme Court case law on patent subject matter eligibility has provoked several attempts by Congress to rewrite the statute, but there are lingering concerns about the latest proposal, the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act of 2022. Among these concerns is that the revised set of exceptions to subject matter eligibility might take time to work through both in terms of litigation and patent prosecution, but the bill has the support of a number of stakeholders, including two former commissioners of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO).
It’s not always obvious whether a claim found in a patent is obvious to a “person having ordinary skill” while the patent is still in prosecution, but that lack of clarity came back to bite Best Medical International Inc., of Springfield, Va. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled that a patent for conformal radiotherapy held by Best included three claims that would have been obvious to this mythical person of ordinary skill, handing a win to Stockholm-based Elekta AB, maker of the Gamma Knife radiotherapy system.
