LOMBARD MEDICAL TECHNOLOGIES PLC 
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Lombard Medical Technologies PLC
("Lombard Medical" or "the Company")
Files Petition for Inter Partes Review of Patent with USPTO
London, UK, 7 May 2013- Lombard Medical Technologies PLC (AIM: LMT), the specialist medical technology company focused on innovative vascular products, today announces that it has filed a petition with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for Inter Partes Review of the validity of the broadest claims of US patent No. 6,306,141 ('141 patent), entitled "Medical devices incorporating stress-induced martensite (SIM) alloy elements", which is assigned to Medtronic Inc.
The Company believes that claims of the '141 patent directed to the use of a shape memory alloy exhibiting SIM in a medical device, are invalid because the use of self-expanding shape memory alloys utilizing stress induced martensite (an inherent property of all Nitinol based devices that exhibit thermally induced martensite (TIM)) for medical devices was well known before the patent was filed. As such the claims in the '141 patent are invalid and not entitled to protection under the US patent laws. Afinal determination by The Patent and Trademark Appeals Board (PTAB) of the validity of the '141 patent will be issued within 18 months after institution of the Review. No counterpart patents to the '141 patent are in force in other territories outside of the US.
Lombard Medical does not believe it infringes the '141 patent and will launch Aorfix?, its lead product for the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs), in H2 2013 as planned.
About the Inter Partes Review Process
Inter Partes Review is a relatively new proceeding arising from provisions in the America Invents Act (2011). The Inter Partes Review is conducted before the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeals Board (PTAB).During the Review the PTAB will determine whether the claims in a patent are invalid in view of the prior art, i.e., whether the patent should ever have been issued.
The Inter Partes Review process begins with the filing of a petition by a third party (a person who is not the owner of the patent). Once a petition has been filed, a patent owner will have three months to respond to the petition and the PTAB will have three months after that to consider whether the petition raises a substantial new question of patentability. Once the proceeding is instituted, the PTAB will issue a final determination of invalidity within 1 year (extendable for good cause by 6 months). A petition, once filed for Inter Partes Review, can be withdrawn by the applicant at any stage of the process.
The procedure for conducting Inter Partes Review took effect on September 16, 2012, and applies to any patent issued before, on, or after September 16, 2012. As noted in The White House press release on occasion of President Obama signing the America Invents Act into law "The Patent and Trademark Office will offer entrepreneurs new ways to avoid litigation regarding patent validity, at cost significantly less expensive than going to court" (Sept 16 2011).
-Ends-
Lombard Medical Technologies PLC | Tel: 01235 750 800 |
Simon Hubbert, Chief Executive Officer Ian Ardill, Chief Financial Officer | |
Canaccord Genuity Limited Lucy Tilley / Henry Fitzgerald O'Connor / Dr. Julian Feneley | Tel: 020 7523 8000 |
FTI Consulting Simon Conway / Susan Stuart / Victoria Foster Mitchell | Tel: 020 7831 3113 |
About Lombard Medical
Lombard Medical Technologies PLC (AIM: LMT), is a medical device company focused on device solutions for the $1.2 billion dollar per annum abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair market. AAAs are a balloon-like enlargement of the aorta which, if left untreated, may rupture and cause death. Approximately 4.5 million people are living with AAAs in the developed world and each year 600,000 new cases are diagnosed. The market for endovascular stent grafts for this application is expected to grow to $1.6 billion by 2015. The Company's lead product, Aorfix?, is an endovascular stent graft which has been specifically designed to solve the problems that exist in treating complex tortuous anatomy which is often present in advanced AAA disease. Aorfix? is currently being commercialised in the EU, and has been approved by the FDA in the U.S. It is the only stent graft approved for AAA neck angulations of up to 90 degrees. Plans are currently underway to launch Aorfix? in the US later this year through the group's own direct sales force, focusing on patients with tortuous aneurysm neck anatomy between 60 and 90 degrees in line with the products unique label. Aorfix? is the first AAA stent graft not of U.S. origin to gain FDA approval.
The Company is headquartered in Oxfordshire, with operations in Ayrshire and Phoenix, USA.
This information is provided by RNS
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