Medical Devices

O&R patent lawyers have represented large and small corporations, research institutions, and early-stage ventures in the medical device area for decades.

The human body, in some ways, can be thought of as a combination of electrical, mechanical, and software components, which interact to cause life. It comes as no surprise therefore that medical devices run the gamut from purely mechanical structures like stents and implants, to devices dominated by software, such as MRI controllers and the like. The successful drafting and prosecution of such applications requires a similar gamut of experience.

What often distinguishes medical device innovations from other innovations is the application’s domain. That is, new medical devices often make use of principles that have been used in other parts of the body, sometimes for similar purposes. For example, one might have a vascular shunt designed for use in some novel location. To overcome this, it is important to appreciate some nuance in the novel device’s structure that makes it possible to use it in that location. We draw attention to such nuances in drafting patent applications as well as during prosecution. 

Increasingly, medical devices have significant algorithmic components, for example, in areas such as image analysis, control systems, and machine learning. Some diagnostic approaches we have protected combine data acquisition with signal processing or machine learning techniques. Our firm’s breadth in the mechanical, electrical, and algorithmic/mathematical areas supports our medical device practice because we are able to identify the synergies between the medical applications and the different technical areas to craft protection that is well-matched to the medical applications.

We work with a wide range of types of inventors in the medical device area, be they surgeons developing new treatment devices for which there may be an immediate need, academic researchers working on technologies of the future, or engineers working on commercialization of concepts addressing real-world challenges to introducing new technologies. We understand their perspectives and expertise and recognize that often we may have to combine information from our client’s staff in different disciplines.

Our medical device experience includes work in the following areas:

  • endoscopes

  • spinal fixation devices

  • infusion pumps and supplies

  • suturing approaches

  • fetal monitoring devices and algorithms

  • needleless injectors

  • image-guided surgical systems

  • systems for contactless sensing of vital signs

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