Spine Surgery Patent Case Denied Look From Full Federal Circuit

The Federal Circuit declined to convene as a full court to consider the role district judges play in keeping unreliable evidence from being shown to jurors during patent trials.

The issue arose in Barry v. DePuy Synthes Products Inc., where a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed a judge who barred a plaintiff from presenting expert testimony at trial, including a survey meant to show how many doctors performed a certain patent-protected spinal surgery procedure.

The en banc bid got a flurry of amicus support, including from a prominent defense lawyers group ...