Wake Forest Hit Hard in Patent Suit

A Texas judge has struck down the patent support for vacuum-assisted closure (VAC) technology that has been worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Wake Forest University and Kinetic Concepts, Inc. (KCI) of San Antonio, TX, which licensed the technology. According to TechnologyTransferTactics.com, Wake is appealing the judge’s ruling that claims in the patent “would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill.” That response is smart. The immediate announcement of the intent to appeal discourages competitors and insulates KCI’s current sales momentum and Wake’s resulting royalties.