SUNNYVALE, Calif. April 6, 2023 (PRWEB) April 06, 2023 CellMax Life, a molecular diagnostics company with a proprietary colorectal cancer screening blood
Last year, the Supreme Court declined an invitation to abrogate the doctrine of assignor estoppel by an assignor sued for patent infringement in Minerva Surgical v. Hologic. .
Last Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in
Minerva Surgical v. Hologic, thereby agreeing to resolve a long-running debate on patent law’s doctrine of assignor estoppel. Minerva Surgical has asked the Court to abolish the doctrine, which bars inventors who sell their patent rights from challenging the patent’s validity in district court.
The inventor in this case, Csaba Truckai, co-founded a company called NovaCept and developed two patents for endometrial ablation, a surgical process used to treat menstrual bleeding. NovaCept sold its patents to Cytyc Corp., which was acquired by Hologic. Then Truckai formed Minerva Surgical, which developed a competing ablation system. Hologic sued for infringement, asserting the two NovaCept patents. The district court ruled that Minerva could not challenge the validity of Hologic’s patents, because Truckai was barred by assignor estoppel from attacking his own patents. The jury found that Minerva infringed both patents and