On October 11, 2016, the USPTO’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“Board”) issued a final decision in an inter partes review regarding a petition filed by CR Bard, Inc. (“Petitioner”) over the patentability of claims 1-22 recited in U.S. Patent No. 8,852,160 (“the ‘160 Patent”). The ‘160 Patent, which issued on October 7, 2014, is owned by Medical Components, Inc. and is drawn to a venous access port with molded and/or radiopaque indicia. In the decision, the Board denied Petition’s Request for Rehearing of a February 4, 2016 Board decision that denied the institution of the inter partes review because the Petitioner had not demonstrated a reasonable likelihood of prevailing in showing that any of the challenged claims were unpatentable. The inter partes review remains pending at the Board and is captioned IPR2015-01654.
By: Jacqueline A. DiRamio