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IP Watch: Medtronic to Acquire Biophan MRI Safety Technology
Douglas C. Limbach
August 1, 2007
3 Min Read
.svg?width=850&auto=webp&quality=95&format=jpg&disable=upscale "IP Watch: Medtronic to Acquire Biophan MRI Safety Technology")
Biophan Technologies Inc. (Pittsford, NY) and Medtronic Inc. (Minneapolis) have entered into an agreement under which Medtronic will acquire Biophan's magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) safety patents for $11 million in cash. The transaction, announced earlier this month, is expected to close within 60 days.
Under the terms of the agreement, Biophan will transfer to Medtronic its MRI safety patent portfolio, which includes technologies designed to make certain medical devices, such as pacemakers, safe for use with MRI.
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"Our technology has the potential to solve the problems that have prevented many people with pacemakers from having an MRI," said Michael Weiner, president of Biophan. "We believe Medtronic has the experience and resources to bring our technology to market."
"Since our founding in 2000, our goal has been to develop and commercialize innovative technologies related to medical imaging safety, with a focus on the development of solutions for the contraindication between pacemakers and MRI machines," added Guenter Jaensch, chairman of Biophan's board of directors.
Biophan reports that it will continue its efforts to develop technologies to enable visualization of clotting and restenosis in stents under MRI, which is not possible with today's stents. In addition, it will continue its collaboration with Myotech on the development of the Myotech circulatory support system, a novel device for the treatment of acute heart failure. Biophan holds a 45% interest in Myotech with rights to acquire a majority position.
Industry IP in Brief
In addition to the recently announced agreement between Biophan and Medtronic, the following medtech intellectual property news was announced this month.
The endoscopy division of Smith & Nephew Inc., a subsidiary of Smith & Nephew plc (London), announced that the company has filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas against privately held Arthrex Inc. (Naples, FL). Smith & Nephew claims that Arthrex's Retrobutton infringes a patent owned by the company. The patents asserted in the claim cover Smith & Nephew's Endobutton fixation device and similar devices and methods for attaching tissue grafts to bone during arthroscopic surgery in the knee.
Early this month, Johnson & Johnson Inc. (J&J; New Brunswick, NJ) filed suit against the American Red Cross in a New York federal court. In the suit, J&J asserts that it owns the rights to the red cross design trademark on commercial products. The suit says the nonprofit relief organization violated the organizations' longstanding trademark-sharing agreement by licensing the cross to sellers of retail products.
SonoSite Inc. (Bothell, WA) has expanded the scope of its patent infringement lawsuit against General Electric Co. (GE; Fairfield, CT) to include additional patents. The suit was filed as a counterclaim to a complaint GE filed against SonoSite in May, in which GE alleges that SonoSite's compact ultrasound technology infringes several patents held by GE.
© 2007 Canon Communications LLC
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