Sex-Toy Maker Denies Past Designs Damage Its Patents’ Validity

An administrative tribunal correctly shut down a German competitor’s validity challenge to three sex-toy patents, an attorney for Novoluto GMBH told a Federal Circuit panel Friday.

Novoluto counsel Tammy J. Terry pushed back on EIS GMBH’s arguments that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board ignored features of a therapeutic massager, a mechanical dildo, and “a table-top mannequin-like sexual aid” that included functionality similar to the patents.

“What was shown abundantly clear throughout the record was that there had not been any contemplation of indirect stimulation to a clitoris that applied both positive and negative pressures,” she said. “What EIS asks ...