Appeals court upholds Thermomedic win over Exergen

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a decision from the lower courts invalidating a series of Exergen’s patents in a spat between Exergen and Thermomedics.

The spat is over patents related to non-contact thermometers, which diagnose temperature based on radiation and temperature measurements taken at the temporal artery at the side of the forehead.

The original decision came from the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, and found in favor of the defending Thermomedics.

Exergen asserted that Thermomedics had infringed on 4 claims on its non-contact thermometer patent, invented by Exergen CEO Dr. Francisco Pompei. The patent in question describes the method of measuring body temperature from a patient’s forehead.

In the suit, Exergen claims that the concept of measuring body temperature from the surface of the forehead is patent eligible because the practice was thought impossible when its patent was initially issued, according to court documents.

The court ruled against that idea, saying that the patent was discoverable as merely a relationship between skin and core temperature.

“No matter how novel the concept of measuring body temperature from forehead skin temperature or how valuable the contribution to the medical community, this idea as set forth in the asserted claims is fundamentally a discovery of a natural relationship between skin temperature and body temperature,” U.S. District Judge Denise Casper wrote.

The court ruled in favor of Thermomedics, throwing out Exergen’s claims of patent infringement.

Last October, Miami, Fla.-based Sanomedics said it approved the sale of its subsidiary Thermomedics to Positive ID and that it is acquiring orthopedic retailer The Brace Shop.

Thermomedics produces the Caregiver non-contact clinical-grade infrared thermometer, which is FDA cleared for measuring forehead temperature in adults, children and infants.

The sale of Thermodynamics could bring in as much as $2 million dollars, according to the company.

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