Dive Brief:
- Teleflex’s patent claims for its interventional cardiology devices are patentable, a panel of judges ruled on Monday in a pair of decisions that boost the specialist device maker over medtech giant Medtronic.
- Medtronic had appealed the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit after the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) also found in favor of some of Teleflex’s patents in 2019.
- In one decision, the judges noted that the PTAB found that Medtronic copied Teleflex’s GuideLiner products with its Telescope guide catheter, proving the patent’s “nonobviousness.”
Dive Insight:
The five patents at the heart of the two challenges are used in Teleflex’s guide catheters, which are designed to bring in interventional cardiology devices such as stents and balloon catheters to treat narrowing arteries due to plaque buildup.
In both decisions, the three-judge panel upheld PTAB’s finding that some of Teleflex’s claims were “not unpatentable” and that the company could amend some of its claims for the patents in question.
The first three patents are involved in Teleflex’s GuideLiner guide catheters, which “enjoyed undisputed commercial success and industry praise and were eventually followed by multiple, competing guide extension catheters, including Medtronic’s Telescope product, introduced in 2019,” according to the decision.
Noting the patent board found that Medtronic copied Teleflex with its Telescope product, the judges wrote that it supports Teleflex’s patent claims.
“The fact that a competitor copied the patentee’s invention, rather than one within the public domain, is probative of nonobviousness because it suggests the competitor saw value in the invention that he could not achieve without copying,” they wrote.
In the second case, the judges found that Medtronic’s arguments against Teleflex’s patents were unpersuasive.
Wayne, Pennsylvania-based Teleflex reported revenue of $2.79 billion in 2022. The company previously sued Medtronic claiming its Telescope catheter violated seven of its patents.
Medtronic’s revenue for the fiscal year 2023, which ended April 28, 2023, was $31.2 billion.
Neither Medtronic nor Teleflex responded immediately to requests for comment.
Updates with request for comment from companies.
