Avita Medical Ltd., a biomedical company that uses regenerative cell technology to treat wounds and skin defects, is challenging a competitor’s use of a U.S. patent.
Avita, which has its U.S. offices in Valencia, filed an Inter Partes Review petition with the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), the company said in a statement Thursday. Such a petition is a procedure for the validity of a patent.
The challenge is related to Renovacare Sciences Corp.’s claims for US Patent No. 9,610,430, claims Avita maintains are unpatentable and should be cancelled.
The board has accepted the petition and will decide if the case should come to trial.
“We believe we have presented a very strong rationale to the PTAB as to why this patent should never have been issued, and thus, we respectfully request that all claims in the ‘430 patent should be cancelled,” said Avita CEO Adam Kelliher in the statement. “Avita is a pioneer in the regenerative medicine arena, and we are very protective of our intellectual property rights.”
Avita Medical is based in Perth, Australia, and has its principal European office in Cambridge, England. Its shares are traded on the Australian Stock Exchange and over the counter in the United States, where it closed up slightly at $1.38 a share Thursday.
Renovacare is a biomedical company that is developing self-donated stem cell therapies for the regeneration of human skin and other organs.
The company’s corporate office is in New York, and its operations are based in Pittsburgh. Its OTC shares closed Thursday at $4.20, down twenty cents.
