Medtronic announced that its Intellis™ neurostimulator and the Vanta™ neurostimulator have both received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of chronic pain associated with diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN), in a January 24, 2022 press release. The approval grants patients suffering from DPN access to both products within Medtronic’s spinal cord stimulation (SCS) portfolio. The IntellisTM neurostimulator is rechargeable whereas the VantaTM neurostimulator is recharge-free .
Surgeons at the University of Maryland School of Medicine performed the first successful porcine (pig) to human heart transplant, a procedure referred to as “xenotransplantation.” The patient, 57 year old David Bennett, was recovering and doing well three days after the procedure. The surgical team continues to monitor Mr. Bennett’s condition.
EVOLUSION CONCEPTS, INC. v. HOC EVENTS, INC.
Before Prost, Taranto, and Chen. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
Summary: Claim that requires the removal of a “factory-installed catch bar” before installing “a catch bar” does not imply the preclusion of reuse of the original factory-installed bar.
GE Healthcare announced on December 21, 2021, that it has completed the $1.45 billion acquisition of BK Medical from Altaris Capital Partners. According to the press release, the acquisition expands GE Healthcare’s $3 billion ultrasound business from diagnostics into surgical and therapeutic interventions and adds to GE Healthcare’s capability in the fast-growing advanced surgical visualization segment.
INTEL CORPORATION v. QUALCOMM INCORPORATED
Before Prost, Taranto, and Hughes. Appeal from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
Summary: Indefinite claims do not preclude patentability analysis at the PTAB.
INTEL CORPORATION v. QUALCOMM INCORPORATED
Before Prost, Taranto, and Hughes. Appeal from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
Summary: A “generic” motivation to combine that has broad appeal or applicability is not deficient so long as it is supported by more than conclusory expert testimony.
On December 13, Baxter International Inc. (“Baxter”) announced the completion of one of the biggest medtech acquisitions of 2021, acquiring Hillrom (a global medical equipment maker headquartered in Chicago) for a purchase price of ~$10.5 billion. The deal had originally been announced by Baxter in September 2021.
(December 13, 2021) Two pharmaceutical companies have issued recalls in December due to manufacturing issues that may impact the safety and quality of their drug products.
On November 16, 2021, Miramax, LLC (“Miramax”) brought claims of breach of contract, copyright infringement, trademark infringement, and unfair competition against director Quentin Tarantino. A copy of the complaint can be found here. Miramax alleges that Tarantino planned to auction off Pulp Fiction Non-Fungible Tokens (“NFT”) comprised of “seven uncut Pulp Fiction Scenes” which include “scans of some pages of the Pulp Fiction script.” For example, the website for the NFT sales states that a digital version of the film’s iconic “Royale with Cheese” scene will also be up for auction. These Pulp Fiction NFTs allegedly hold “previously unknown secrets of [] specific iconic scene[s]” from the movie. The recent explosive demand for NFTs – tokens using distributed ledger technologies (e.g., Ethereum) used to represent ownership of unique items- has caused artists, creators and intellectual property holders to consider monetizing their digital options.
On December 1, 2021, RefleXion Medical, Inc. (“RefleXion”), announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) has granted the company breakthrough device designation for its biology-guided radiotherapy (“BgRT”) for lung tumors.
