In the May issue of Medical Design & Outsourcing, Finnegan partners Arpita Bhattacharyya and Jacob Schroeder discuss five tips that medical device company executives and entrepreneurs should consider when launching a new product. In the article, they address freedom-to-operate (FTO) patent searches, design patent strategies, method claims, and trade secrets. Arpita said, "Design patents can really help to strengthen your patent portfolio and give you a competitive edge, particularly against similar-looking or knockoff competitor products." They also addressed the need for quality patents, rather than focusing on quantity. Jacob said:
"Of the over 10 million patents issued in the history of the United States, only a small percentage of these have ever been subject of a lawsuit, and fewer still have made it all the way to a jury verdict. That’s why measuring the value of your company simply by the number of patents it has obtained makes about as much sense as measuring the value of your company based on the number of people it has employed over the company’s history. Both metrics show that a lot of money had been spent, but … as a patent trial lawyer, I’d take one well-drafted patent over a thousand weak patents any day.”
Read the full article here.
