Court Rules that Hologic Didn’t Steal Minerva’s Patented Technology

Case: Minerva Surgical Instruments sued Hologic for illegally incorporating Minerva’s patented technology for endometric ablation into its NovaSure ADVANCED and CLASSIC devices. Hologic argued that it based its NovaSure devices on a plasma delivery system that had already been reduced to practice for at least a year. The federal district court agreed and tossed Minerva’s claim for a declaration of the validity of its patent. Significance: Under the so-called “on-sale bar” of patent law (35 U.S.C. § 102(b)), a person is entitled to a patent unless the invention was “in public use or on sale in this country, more than one year prior to the date of the application for patent in the United States.” The evidence clearly demonstrated that the technology had been reduced to use for years before the NovaSure products launched. Minerva itself displayed a prototype of what would later become its Aurora product incorporating the technology at the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists trade show in 2009. As a result, it granted Hologic’s motion for summary judgment on the invalidity of the Minerva patent. Minerva Surgical v. Hologic, Inc., 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 138474, 2021 U.S.P.Q.2D (BNA) 789, 2021 WL 3161477