New England IP Blog

Covering intellectual property developments in New England, and other developments that impact New England companies.

Category Archives: Medical Devices

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Subpoenas on Customers Blocked in MRI Patent Case

By Alexander Roan on Posted in Health Care, Massachusetts, Medical Devices
In a recent multi-district case involving patent infringement allegations relating to MRI imaging, Judge Stearns granted motions for protective orders directed to untimely-served subpoenas on third party customers. The case stems from an action filed by NeuroGrafix and others against Brainlab, Inc., Brainlab AG, and Brainlab Medzinische Computersysteme GmbH (collectively, “Brainlab”), among other defendants, alleging infringement of its U.S. … Continue Reading

Some Cardiac Monitoring Patents Beat Alice Challenge, While Others Fail to Survive

By Patrick Niedermeier on Posted in Health Care, Judgment on the Pleadings, Massachusetts, Medical Devices, Subject Matter Eligibility
In the time since Alice changed the landscape of patent eligibility for certain types of inventions, the Federal Circuit has begun pumping out opinions interpreting this landmark Supreme Court case. The expanding body of law has enabled lower courts to find their rhythm when utilizing the Alice test to determine subject matter eligibility. In one recent … Continue Reading

Court Throws Out Back Massager Trade Dress Infringement Claims on Motion to Dismiss

By Patrick Niedermeier on Posted in Connecticut, Health Care, Manufacturing, Medical Devices, Motion to Dismiss, Trademarks and Trade Dress
As the first-filed paper in nearly any litigation, the complaint is typically subject to rigorous scrutiny from the named defendant to identify any flaws that may dispatch the case via a motion to dismiss. A plaintiff in the District of Connecticut recently felt this pain, as its complaint was dismissed under Rule 12(b)(6) for failing … Continue Reading

Blink And You’ll Miss Your Window To Intervene In An Infringement Suit

By Laura Stafford on Posted in Health Care, Massachusetts, Medical Devices, Procedure/Jurisdiction
Judge Indira Talwani emphasized the importance of timely intervention in any patent infringement suit, in a recent opinion out of the District of Massachusetts. In this case, an exclusive licensee of several patents was not permitted to intervene in a patent infringement suit, largely because its motion was filed many months too late. The Hilsinger Company, … Continue Reading

Massachusetts Jury Verdict Stands After Court Ruling on Laches

By Patrick Niedermeier on Posted in Health Care, Laches, Massachusetts, Medical Devices
A Massachusetts court recently denied defendant Kaz’s motions for judgment on the defenses of laches and equitable estoppel, letting stand an earlier jury verdict that found Kaz had infringed Exergen’s patents for temporal thermometers.  As we previously reported, the verdict awarded the plaintiff almost $15 million in damages.… Continue Reading

Plaintiff Secures Sweeping Jury Verdict in Hotly-Contested Patent Fight

By Patrick Niedermeier on Posted in Contributory Infringement, Direct Infringement, Enablement, Health Care, Indefiniteness, Inducement, Massachusetts, Medical Devices, Obviousness, Prior Art
In a long-running patent fight involving two medical device manufacturers, a Massachusetts jury determined last week that the defendant Kaz had infringed two of plaintiff Exergen’s patents relating to temporal thermometers, and that the patents are not invalid. The jury also awarded Exergen nearly $15 million in damages.… Continue Reading

Defendant’s Argument to Exclude Damages Theory Heads in the Wrong Direction

By Patrick Niedermeier on Posted in Damages, Health Care, Massachusetts, Medical Devices, Subject Matter Eligibility, Validity
Although courts and commentators have turned up the heat on the entire market value rule (EMVR) in recent years, it can be a useful tool for a patentee to obtain significant damages where the evidence shows that the patented feature is the basis of consumer demand for the accused product. Thus, defendants often try to … Continue Reading

Massachusetts Court Takes the Temperature of Defendant’s Inequitable Conduct Claim on Summary Judgment

By Laura Stafford on Posted in Biotechnology, Copyright, Defenses, Electronics, Health Care, Invalidity, Massachusetts, Medical Devices, Validity
In a recent decision out of the District of Massachusetts, Judge Stearns assessed Kaz’s inequitable conduct defense on summary judgment – and found it to come up short by a degree. The opinion is an important reminder that to make out an inequitable conduct defense, a litigant must make a strong showing as to both … Continue Reading

Plaintiff Avoids Headache of Having Its Thermometer Patent Invalidated at Summary Judgment

By Patrick Niedermeier on Posted in Enablement, Health Care, Infringement, Infringement/Willfulness, Massachusetts, Medical Devices, Obviousness, Prior Art, Procedure/Jurisdiction, Summary Judgment, Validity, Willfulness
In a recent District of Massachusetts case, a defendant attempted to use the crucible of summary judgment to invalidate the plaintiff’s body temperature detection patents. But, as shown in the Court’s ruling, sometimes that strategy does not produce the desired results.… Continue Reading

Serial Adversaries Are Still No Big Deal

By Laura Stafford on Posted in Attorneys’ Fees & Ethics, Electronics, Ethics, Health Care, Massachusetts, Medical Devices, Sports
Judge Indira Talwani issued an order on plaintiff Erik Cherdak’s renewal of his motion to disqualify, which we talked about last year in Serial Adversaries Are No Big Deal. And once again, she found that for Cooley, serial adversaries are still no issue. Judge Talwani again found no evidence that Cooley’s representation of two separate … Continue Reading

In Thermometer Case, Reliance on Opinion of Counsel May Waive Privilege – But Only to a Certain Degree

By Nathan Harris on Posted in Infringement/Willfulness, Massachusetts, Medical Devices, Opinions of Counsel, Willfulness
How do you defend yourself against charges of willful patent infringement? Companies finding themselves facing such an allegation often use the defense that they relied on a pre-lawsuit opinion from a lawyer that the company does not infringe valid patents. Such an opinion, if it exists, can be a strong piece of defensive evidence, because … Continue Reading
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