In the last 11 months, several orthopedic and spine devicemakers have gone to court to defend their patents.
Here are four patent lawsuits to know since March 2023:
1. An appeal board for the European Patent Office has revoked a pain management system patent belonging to California-based medical device company Nevro following a challenge from its competitors Medtronic and Boston Scientific. The decision invalidates Nevro's patent entitled "Multi-frequency Neural Treatments and Associated Systems and Methods."
2. French orthopedic devicemaker Safe Medical saw another win against Neo Medical over patent infringement. The Paris Judicial Court upheld its judgment from a May 2021 ruling that Neo Medical infringed one of Safe Medical's patents for a pedicle screw kit.
3. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Patent Trial and Appeal Board ruled against orthopedic device company Extremity Medical in its patent dispute against Fusion Orthopedics, Zimmer Biomet and Paragon 28. In 2021, Extremity filed a patent application for a device similar to Fusion Orthopedics' IntraLock device, which launched in 2019.
4. Foot and ankle device company Fusion Orthopedics reached an agreement with medical device company Treace Medical in an ongoing patent dispute. In March 2022, Treace filed a civil action suit against Fusion in an Arizona district court, alleging patent, trademark and copyright infringement.