Court won’t toss patent lawsuit against Texas ASC over hybrid OR

A federal court denied Woodway-based Heart of Texas Surgery Center and Catheterization Lab’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit contending its hybrid operating room infringed on patents by PM Holdings.

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The patents cover a hybrid operating room with an imaging device and an operating table inside an ASC or office building. 

According to court documents, the ASC remodeled its facility in 2016 to add a catherization lab that contains components of the patented model. 

The ASC failed to convince a federal judge for the Western District of Texas Waco Division that the patents, owned by vascular surgeon L. Philipp Wall, are invalid because they cover an abstract idea. The court ruled that the patents aren’t invalid because they are directed to physician structures, including physician rooms.

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