MTF Announces Filing of Inter Partes Review Petitions and Motion to Stay in Patent Infringement Litigation

EDISON, N.J., Feb. 3, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- MTF, the Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation, announced today that it has filed Inter Partes Review (IPR) Petitions on two MiMedx patents (US Patent Nos. 8,372,437 and 8,323,701) and a Motion to Stay in the related US Federal Court patent infringement litigation.  Under the America Invents Act, IPR is a mechanism to challenge validity of claims in issued US Patents before a panel of educated patent professionals at the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

"By filing these IPR petitions, we will demonstrate to the USPTO that multiple prior art references are available which invalidate the claims in these patents," said Mark Spilker, Ph.D., MTF's Executive Vice President of Research & Development, Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs. "We are prepared to prove in Court that MTF does not infringe any MiMedx patents and that the patents are invalid.  However, we believe that challenging the validity of their patents at the USPTO is the most expeditious course available to us at this time."

The first step in this process is the filing of formal petitions with the USPTO to request a review of the patents at issue.  An inter partes review may be instituted upon "a showing that there is a reasonable likelihood that the requestor would prevail with respect to at least one of the claims challenged" [35 USC §311].  Historically, the vast majority of these IPR petitions have been granted, resulting in the institution of a trial on the patent's validity at the USPTO.  Once a trial is ordered by the USPTO, a final ruling can be expected approximately 18 months from the filing of the IPR petition.

In conjunction with filing the IPR petitions, MTF has concurrently filed a Motion to Stay in the related patent infringement case brought by MiMedx against MTF, Liventa Bioscience and Medline Industries, Inc. in the US Federal Court for the Northern District of Georgia.  When filed based upon an IPR challenge to the patents asserted in litigation, the Court will often grant the Motion to Stay in order to allow the USPTO time to consider and rule on the patents' validity and thus simplify the District Court case.

About MTF: MTF, one of the nation's leading tissue banks, supplies specialty donated human tissue for use by surgeons in orthopedic, spine, plastic and general surgery and sports medicine procedures.  Since its inception in 1987, MTF has received tissue from more than 100,000 donors and distributed more than 5 million grafts for transplantation.

For further information
Anne Burns – 609-252-1300

SOURCE The Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation