USPTO validates Spectros white LED patent during reexamination

Dec 22 2010

A core Spectros white LED patent was validated during reexamination by the United States Patent Office, and will reissue next year.

In a reexamination of U.S. Patent No. 6,711,426, the Patent Office has affirmed that Spectros' use of White LEDs in medical spectroscopy is unique and protectable, and that certain other applications in biomedical and industrial spectroscopy devices also fall under this Spectros patent.

"This is a broad affirmation of our dominant I.P. in the white LED and broadband spectroscopy area," noted CEO David Benaron. "This will serve as the basis for our expansion into lab-on-chip devices, color sensors, spectrometers, fluorimeters, and white LED pulse and tissue oximeters."

Spectros holds one of the early White LED patents in the U.S., and the first for use in medical and industrial spectroscopy. Spectros founders began performing color analysis, oximetry, and tissue spectroscopy in the 1980s. In the 1990s they developed a series of high-efficiency, low-thermal transfer broadband illuminators, which have been incorporated into the Spectros T-Stat® and Continuum® Tissue Oximeters, the only broadband tissue oximeters on the market in the U.S. and Europe. T-Stat® competes in the marketplace with INVOS® oximeters marketed by Covidien. Multiple continuations of the Spectros white LED patent family are under prosecution in the U.S., Europe, and Japan.

Spectros and its affiliates have over 80 patents issued, licensed, or filed worldwide for molecular sensing, detection, and imaging, forming one of the largest biophotonics intellectual property collections. These solid-state illuminators can be incorporated into spectroscopy equipment, lab-on-chip devices, color sensors, spectrometers, fluorimeters, pulse and tissue oximeters, and the like.

Spectros aggressively defends its technologies and products against infringement, including litigation filed against Thermo Fisher Scientific for alleged infringement in 2009.