Our Medical Device team is truly multidisciplinary, reflecting the technological convergence that has occurred in this area in recent years. Intellectual property (IP) protection is crucial in the medical device industry to safeguard innovative technologies, designs and processes used in development and manufacturing.
We have a wealth of experience in this sector covering wide-ranging medical technologies. Our attorneys are particularly experienced in the preparation and prosecution of patent applications and design registrations in numerous areas.
These include:
- Angioplasty devices
- Antioxidant stabilised polymer implants
- Atherectomy devices
- Biosensors
- Catheters
- Dental appliances
- Diagnostics
- Drug delivery systems
- Implantable prosthetics
- Inhalers
- Instruments and surgical equipment, including imaging for virtual and assisted surgery
- Navigation, user interfaces and surgical or implant applications of artificial intelligence (AI)
- Orthopaedic implants
- Ostomy devices
- Patient monitoring
- Patient-specific implants
- Polymers
- Prosthetic joint stabilisation
- Robotics linked with surgical devices
- Surgical implants
- Surgical instruments and impactors
- Suturing devices
- Intramuscular, sub- and transcutaneous and intradermal delivery systems
- Wound therapeutics
Society increasingly relies on medical devices to enable people to go about their daily lives. As these devices move away from older, clunky designs and towards forms which integrate better into personal lifestyles, good technology and product designs can have immense value. This is frequently protectable with design registration, as well as through patent protection. Our Medical Device team is adept at identifying all areas of our clients’ innovations and the appropriate protection available to maximise their commercial impact.
Registered trade marks help ring-fence protection for a brand in relation to defined goods or services. Trade mark registrations can be used to prevent competitors using the same or a similar trade mark in relation to the registered goods/services, including any that are of inferior quality to those of the brand owner. Trade mark registrations can be perpetual – this makes them valuable IP assets, particularly once patent protection for a product or device has expired. You can secure trade mark registration for all aspects of a brand, including words, visual imagery, logos, slogans, colours and the shape of a product.
Patient health information is sensitive data and so medical devices data is highly regulated. Monitoring patients’ health remotely and digitally means frequent sharing of sensitive health data between the patient and third parties. This is why strict data rules regarding monitoring, storing and transferring data need to be well understood and considered. Wearable devices and digital health tools are becoming more popular for consumers and patients, and these too need protection.
Our Medical Device team includes solicitors who are experts in data protection laws, and therefore able to deftly navigate this complicated legal area.
