Palomar Medical (PMTI) Announces US Patent Office Confirms Validity of 56 Claims for Hair Removal Patent

June 15, 2009 9:58 AM EDT

Palomar Medical Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: PMTI) announced today that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has confirmed the validity of 56 claims in the re-examination of U.S. Patent No. 5,735,844, entitled "Hair Removal Using Optical Pulses".

Rejecting Candela's and another company's arguments to the contrary, the U.S. Patent Office confirmed that claims 1-3, 6-8, 11, 17-20, 27, 28, 30, 32 of the '844 patent are valid and patentable. As part of the re-examination process, Palomar added 26 new claims (33-59) to the '844 patent, and the Patent Office also confirmed these new claims as valid and patentable. The Patent Office rejected only independent claim 12 and related dependent claims 13-14 as unpatentable. Palomar has cancelled these claims 12-14 from the '844 patent in order to expedite the re-examination proceeding. Claims 4, 5, 9, 10, 15, 16, 21-26, 29 and 31 are not under re-examination. Consequently, all currently pending claims are valid.

Palomar and Massachusetts General Hospital are suing Candela for willful infringement of the '844 patent in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. On November 17, 2008, the lawsuit was stayed by the Court pending the outcome of the re-examination proceeding of the '844 patent and the re-examination proceeding of U.S. Patent No. 5,595,568. Palomar will seek a re-start of the lawsuit given the allowance of all currently pending claims in the '844 patent.

The re-examination of the '568 patent is ongoing and no office action has yet been issued.

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