Washington, D.C. – The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) affirmed Medtronic patents covering a sacral stimulation system on Thursday, after Federal Circuit judges last year ordered the board to reconsider the validity of the patents at the request of rival bladder and bowel control device maker, Axonics Inc.
In a pair of unanimous decisions, Administrative Patent Judge James Tartal wrote that Axonics Inc.’s new arguments to invalidate Medtronic Inc.’s two patents, following the Federal Circuit’s remand, did not lead the board to a different conclusion.
Since 2019, Axonics, a California-based manufacturer of bladder implants, has been defending a patent lawsuit from Medtronic, which produces and markets bladder implants under the InterStim brand name. In January 2024, Boston Scientific acquired Axonics for $3.7 billion.
A trial between Medtronic and Axonics is set to begin in September before U.S. District Judge David Carter in a federal court in Orange County, California. Ahead of this, Axonics has been trying to argue before the patent board that two patents covering Medtronic’s InterStim device should never have been issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, claiming that they were obvious to those in the bladder device industry.
