Medtronic Patent Survives Recor’s Validity Challenge at Board

A California company’s challenge to the validity of a rival’s patented hypertension treatment at the heart of a German lawsuit came up short at an administrative trial.

The US Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board ruled June 14 that Medtronic Vascular Inc.'s US Patent No. 8,845,629, which describes a treatment using heat on veins leading to the kidneys, was neither obvious in light of nor anticipated by prior patents as rival ReCor Medical Inc.

ReCor challenged the patent, held by an Irish unit of California-based Medtronic, after a separate Medtronic subsidiary sued ReCor in November 2021 ...