Clearing government regulations to commercialize a medical device can be an arduous and lengthy process. When clinical trials are involved, companies can spend as long as 5 to10 years to gain approval from FDA and invest $100 million or more to bring a device to market. Patents are key to recouping these costs by preventing others from copying successful products.
Yet, until device companies gain approval to market the device, their patent rights are far less useful. By the time...