Birtcher Medical Announces Filing of Suit, Countersuit in Patent Dispute

Birtcher Medical Systems Inc. announced Monday that a lawsuit and countersuit have been filed in a dispute with a Colorado company over a patent.

Birtcher said it filed the lawsuit Wednesday asking the U.S. District Court in Denver to declare invalid a patent by Aspen Laboratories Inc. of Englewood for a pad monitoring device used as a safety mechanism with surgical cutting and cauterizing tools. The suit also asks the court to issue a declaration stating that Birtcher’s version of the pad monitoring device does not infringe on the patent.

Aspen Laboratories’ parent company, Conmed Corp. in Utica, N.Y., on Friday filed a countersuit against Birtcher alleging trademark infringement. Aspen referred a call for comment on the litigation to Conmed, where no one could be reached Monday for comment.

Birtcher contends that pad monitoring devices were in use long before Aspen’s allegation of trademark infringement. It also claims that Birtcher’s version of the device works differently than that described in Aspen’s patent.

Aspen’s patent “does not describe an invention that is new or unique, as required by U.S. patent law, and we have asked the court to declare Conmed’s patent invalid,” said William E. Maya, president of Birtcher Medical.