Hologic Loses Bid to Block Minerva’s Surgical Products
Written April 23, 2020
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on April 22, 2020, rejected Hologic, Inc.’s attempt to block sales for Minerva Surgical, Inc.’s surgical products. Hologic, Inc. v. Minerva Surgical, Inc., Fed. Cir., No. 2019-2054, 2019-2081, 4/22/2020.
Hologic, owner of the NovaSure system, owns a patent directed to endometrial ablation, however, the inventor is the founder of Minerva, which makes the rival EAS system. Minerva was successful in challenging the patent at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board but was barred from making that argument in district court because an inventor can’t later claim the patent was wrongly issued in court.
The Federal Circuit ruled that an invalidity decision is binding in all proceedings, no matter the origin of the challenge.