8 December 2016Americas

Federal Circuit vacates PTAB decision on NuVasive patent

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has vacated and remanded a patent suit which NuVasive had appealed against after having patent claims invalidated.

The decision from yesterday, December 7, followed an appeal from the US Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), which held that certain claims of US patent number 8,361,156 are invalid as obvious.

NuVasive is the owner of the ‘156 patent, which relates to a “System and method for spinal fusion comprising a spinal fusion implant of non-bone construction releasably coupled to an insertion instrument dimensioned to introduce the spinal fusion implant into any of a variety of spinal target sites”.

The case originally arose after Medtronic filed an inter partes review with the PTAB to determine whether certain claims of the patent would have been obvious.

In the Federal Circuit, NuVasive argued that the PTAB’s final written decision should be reversed, claiming that it erred in its findings.

The Federal Circuit vacated and remanded the decision by the PTAB.