Feb 14 2008
CryoCor, Inc. has announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has declared a patent interference between a patent application exclusively licensed by CryoCor and two patents held by CryoCath Technologies Inc.
A patent interference is an administrative proceeding within the USPTO to establish which party was the first to invent certain subject matter and, therefore, should have patent rights to the technology. The patent interference is related to certain pre-cooling technologies that CryoCor considers important to CryoCath's cryoablation system.
The USPTO designated CryoCor to be the senior party in the interference as its patent application was found to predate CryoCath's original patent applications. In an interference proceeding, the burden of proof is on the junior party (in this case, CryoCath) to establish an earlier date of invention. The interference dispute will be determined by the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences and presided over by an Administrative Patent Judge. The proceedings are scheduled to begin in March 2008 and the Company expects a final judgment to be made in 2009. CryoCor reported that a second interference, also in the field of pre-cooling, is anticipated to be declared by the USPTO in the first half of 2008.
Ed Brennan, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of CryoCor, said, "We are very pleased with USPTO's decision to grant CryoCor's request to declare this interference, and we anticipate a second interference between CryoCor and CryoCath to be declared in the near future. We believe we have broad coverage in our patent portfolio covering pre-cooling, which we consider important for a cryoablation system. These patent interferences are an important part of our strategy to secure our intellectual property position in the field of cryoablation."