Patent troll files swath of suits against ortho companies

WiLan company Orthopedic Innovations is looking to bring in damages for infringed intellectual properties, filing 5 separate patent suits against major orthopedic companies last October.

The suits are in relation to a patent it holds over “technologies related to a gap checking method and apparatus for shaping a femur preparatory to implanting a knee prosthesis,” which it claims each company infringed upon with a variety of different products.

Included in the suit are ConforMIS (NSDQ:CFMS), DePuy Synthes, Stryker (NYSE:SYK), Zimmer Biomet (NYSE:ZBH) and Medacta.

Each lawsuit was filed over Orthopedic Innovations Patent No. 6,575,980. In a filing against DePuy Synthes, the company claims that DePuy “designs, manufactures, and sells surgical techniques and products that involve applying a gap checking device to the distal end of the femur prior to resection, checking the gap, and shaping the distal end of the femur so as to receive a femoral component of a knee prosthesis after the gap has been checked.”

While most of the companies have not posted responses to the claims, Conformis shed some light on the case in its annual filing posted earlier this year. The company said that Orthopedic Innovations is suing it over its iUni G2 and iDuo G2 partial knee replacement surgical techniques in relation to its patent.

Conformis said the patent troll was seeking “damages for willful infringement, attorney’s fees, costs and a permanent injunction.”

Conformis was positive in its outlook for the case, stating that “we believe that none of our products or services infringes on the plaintiff’s patent,” and that it would “deny liability” and defend itself vigorously.

In court documents concerning related to its case against DePuy, Orthopedic Innovations said that DePuy had responded in January 2015 to an earlier notice of infringement saying that the “patent is invalid as being anticipated by defendant’s own work.”

Orthopedic innovations said it responded to the claim arguing that the references were not anticipated, but had not gotten a response, and therefor filed the suit against the larger company.

An earlier case, filed in March last year against DJO global, was reportedly closed only weeks before Orthopedic Innovations filed its new slew of suits.

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