For most small device start-ups, the threat of patent litigation—particularly when the threat comes from a larger, well-established competitor—becomes a kind of death knell. Investors grow leery, management becomes distracted, and product development and commercialization time tables lengthen—sometimes interminably—as much because of the uncertainty of litigation as its possible outcomes. But executives at one company, Occlutech GmbH, one of the newer companies in the fast-moving space of Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO) and Atrial Septal Defect (ASD) closure devices, believe, quite to the contrary, that the threat of litigation could, in the end, provide just the boost the company needs.
Based in Jena, Germany, Occlutech's new PFO and ASD devices were developed by Hans Figulla, MD, head of cardiology at...