Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Patent Watch

New England inventors reap implant patents

Video Gallery

MHT's Galen Moore: Honoring innovation in New England

Ig Nobel Prizes 2009 award winners

Breaking down the MIT $100K

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I have several friends and relatives who have received hip implants and a significant other who works for a company that designs and sells implants. One of the first patent applications that I worked on many years ago was for a tool used to remove a hip implant that needed to be replaced. So this month let’s take a look at a few published patent applications and issued patents related to implants that name New England inventors.

• Scott Wolfe of Greenwich, Conn. and Joseph Crisco, III, of Barrington, R.I., are the inventors named in two patent applications for a wrist prosthesis with two ball-and-socket joints to better mimic a person’s real wrist. The published patent applications, Nos. 2009/0216333 (Aug. 27) and 2009/0204223 (Aug. 13), are assigned to the New York Society for the Ruptured and Crippled in New York and the Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, R.I.

• An interspinous spacer relieves pain associated with a bulging spinal disc. Patent No. 7,585,313 (Sept. 8) disclosed a new spacer that is installed using minimally invasive surgical techniques. The inventors are Seungkyu Kwak of Grafton and John Hawkins of Cumberland, RI. The assignee is DuPuy Spine Inc. in Raynham.

• DuPuy is also owner of patent No. 7,572,281 issued on Aug. 11 for a new tool used to insert a spinal rod. Spinal rods are used in spine fixations systems to support a patient’s spine. The patented tool allows the surgeon to implant a rod using one hand. Thomas Runco of Canton and Ronald Garner of Hull are the inventors.

• Patent No. 7,524,333 (April 28) relates to a method of replacing a herniated disc. An anulus augmentation device prevents or minimizes the extrusion of materials from the space normally occupied by the nucleus pulposus and inner anulus fibrosis. Got it? There’s also a nuclear augmentation material which restores diminished disc height or pressure. Greg Lambrecht and Robert Moore of Natick, and Jacob Einhorn of Brookline are the listed inventors in this Intrinsic Therapeutics Inc. (Woburn) patent.

• Implanting a prosthetic heart valve can be tricky, especially where a fluid connection must be made between the apex of the heart’s left ventricle and the descending aorta. Patent No. 7,510,561 (March 31) relates to a connector conduit system for such procedures. The invention is intended to make the procedure simple and safe while also reducing the likelihood of tissue damage or other complications. The listed inventors include Richard Beane of Hingham, James Crunkleton of Weston, and Joseph Smith Jr., of Concord. Correx Inc., located in Waltham, is the assignee.

• Gastric-bypass procedures can help a patient lose weight, but the risks are high. Patent No. 7,476,256 (Jan. 13) proposes a gastrointestinal implant in the form of a flexible sleeve inserted (from you-know-where) inside the patient’s small intestine. Food absorption is blocked by the sleeve, so most of what you eat just passes right through your body. The inventors are John Meade of Mendon, Andy Levine of Newton, David Melanson of Hudson, N.H. and John Cvinar of Winchester. GI Dynamics Inc. located in Lexington is the patent owner.

• Deep brain stimulation (DBS) systems are used to treat medical conditions such as Parkinson’s disease. DBS treatment involves the surgical implantation of an electrical stimulator in the brain.
Existing DBS implants exhibit poor spatial resolution, are fairly large, and include copper electrodes which are incompatible with magnetic resonance imaging procedures. Published patent application No. 2009/0254146 (Oct. 8) describes a new implant with a number of microcoils driven by a power source to produce magnetic fields suitable for deep brain stimulation. Giorgio Bonmassar of Lexington, Matti Hamalainen of Boston, and Bruce Rosen of Lexington are the inventors.


 

Kirk Teska is a law professor at Suffolk University Law School, and is managing partner of Iandiorio Teska & Coleman, an intellectual property law firm in Waltham.