The ruling from the appeals court reopens a long-running infringement case filed by Bard against Medcomp, which develops similar devices
Bard filed a lawsuit against MedComp in 2012 over the latter’s Pro-Fuse CT and Dignity products. (Credit: Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash)
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C has upheld three patents relating to Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD)’s subsidiary Bard’s PowerPort devices for administering repeated medicinal injections.
The ruling from the appeals court reopens a long-running infringement case filed by Bard against Medical Components (Medcomp), which develops similar devices, reported Reuters.
According to the publication, the court also granted Medcomp another opportunity to demonstrate the validity of a patent that it had claimed Bard had violated.
In a federal court in Utah, the BD subsidiary filed a lawsuit against Medcomp in 2012 over the latter’s Pro-Fuse CT and Dignity products.
Bard claimed that the products violated its PowerPort patents. The company was countersued by Medcomp for violating one of its patents, the publication wrote.
PowerPort is said to be an access port for giving patients repeated injections of fluids like blood or medicine without the need for intrusive procedures or fresh intravenous lines.
The case was put on hold for seven years due to associated proceedings at the US Patent and Trademark Office.
In 2021, the Utah federal court invalidated the patents of both firms. It claimed that the patents covered abstract ideas that were not eligible for patenting.
The patent application involved markings used to distinguish between different sorts of ports that can be seen on X-rays.
The patents were revived by the Federal Circuit last week based on its 2020 decision in a related dispute between Bard and AngioDynamics. It also ordered the Utah court to relook into whether the similar patent of Medcomp was valid.
As per the appeals court, Bard’s patent includes a new way to use radiographic markers to convey information.
In a separate development, BD has found a vulnerability in software used to monitor some of its infusion pumps that could potentially grant access to hackers of personal data kept in the system.
The US-based medical device firm posted a cybersecurity bulletin about the issue and notified the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other relevant bodies about the possible threat.
The company’s Alaris Infusion Central software is the only component of its infusion pumps that is vulnerable, according to the advisory.