Don’t Come to a Trade Secret Fight with a Patent Law Defense

In what is at heart a trade secret misappropriation case, some Patent Law periodically materializes, like the smile of the Cheshire Cat.

 

This concept was evidenced by a recent case out of Texas.  Bianco, M.D. v. Globus Medical, Inc., 2:12 CV 147 (E.D. TX 10/27/14).

 

Dr. Bianco had an idea for a continuously adjustable spinal implant, which would fit between two adjacent vertebrae in the spine that had become compressed.  Adjust the mechanism, and the vertebrae move apart. The prior art, to use a patent term, revealed mechanisms  which would do the same, but were not continuously adjustable—they worked at best in increments, and could not be reversed (once you separated, that was that; no going back).

 

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