On May 15 and 16, 2014, Boston Scientific Corporation and Boston Scientific Scimed, Inc. (collectively, “Boston Scientific”) filed a total of five petitions with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board requesting inter partes review of three U.S. Patents. The first petition (the ’759 Petition) seeks review of U.S. Patent No. 8,142,413 (“the ’413 Patent”). The second and third petitions (the ’760 Petition and the ’761 Petition) seek review of U.S. Patent No. 8,048,032 (“the ’032 Patent”). The fourth and fifth petitions (the ’762 Petition and the ’763 Petition) seek review of U.S. Patent No. 8,292,850 (“the ’850 Patent”). The petitions state that “all three patents are closely related and directed generally to the same subject matter,” and request that the petitions be assigned to the same Board.
All three patents are entitled “Coaxial Guide Catheter For Interventional Cardiology Procedures,” and list as inventors Howard Root, Greg Sutton, Jeffrey M. Welch, and Jason M. Garrity. According to the patents, the ’850 Patent issued from an application that was a divisional of the application that issued as the ’413 Patent, which was a divisional of the application that issued as the ’032 Patent.
The ’413, ’032, and ’850 Patents state that they relate to “methods and apparatus for increasing backup support for catheters inserted into the coronary arteries from the aorta.” Figure 7 from the patents is shown below:
The ’759 Petition seeks review of claims 1, 4, 9, 10, and 13 of the ’413 Patent on various grounds. The ’760 Petition seeks review of claims 1-4, 8, 11, 13, and 17 of the ’032 Patent on various grounds, and the ’761 Petition seeks review of claims 1-4, 8, 11, and 13 of the ’032 Patent on alternative grounds. The ’762 Petition seeks review of claims 1-4, 8, 12, 14, and 18 of the ’850 Patent on various grounds, and the ’763 Petition seeks review of claims 1-4, 8, 12-14, and 18 of the ’850 Patent on alternative grounds.
The petitions disclose that one or more claims of the ’413, ’032, and ’850 Patents have been asserted against Boston Scientific by Vascular Solutions, Inc. (“VSI”) in a lawsuit originally filed on May 16, 2013 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. VSI’s first amended complaint, filed on May 28, 2013, alleges that Vascular Solutions is the owner by assignment of the ’413, ’032, and ’850 Patents. The complaint further alleges that “VSI’s cause of action arises directly from Boston Scientific’s infringing actions by manufacturing, marketing and selling the infringing Guidezilla™ product in the State of Minnesota. . . .”
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