5. Keeping up with a rapidly changing intellectual property landscape
The move toward more connected medical devices has a major effect on one of the most important considerations for a medical device company: intellectual property.Traditional medical devices constitute patentable subject matter, Fayerberg said. Patent attorneys have been working to protect IP for products such as catheters and stents for a long time; the strategy is to find out what’s different in a crowded market.
The situation, however, is changing now that there are more supplemental technologies such as connected functions, software, augmented reality and artificial intelligence.
“Because you’re dealing with software, it raises different questions than just dealing with the device itself,” Fayerberg said.
Expect more guidance from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office about what a medical device company is able to patent or not patent in terms of such supplemental technologies, according to Fayerberg. “It’s very important to have that strategy: How do you protect your core product, and how do you build a fence around it?”