05.01.13
Mountain View, Calif.-based Hansen Medical Inc. has filed 30 new patent applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office relating to flexible medical robotics, based on research and development activities conducted by the company. With these new filings, Hansen Medical now owns or has exclusive rights to approximately 250 issued and pending patent applications relating to medical robotics, in addition to hundreds of other related patents and patent applications which the company has the right to use under various third party license agreements.
The announcement came shortly after Hansen appointed Will Sutton to the new position of chief operating officer responsible for engineering and manufacturing. Sutton came to the company with a background in research and development (R&D) and manufacturing, having served executive roles at St. Jude Medical Inc., Vascular Solutions Inc., Urologix Inc. and C.R. Bard Inc.
“The creativity demonstrated by our technical teams, supported by our significant investment in R&D, which resulted in these new filings, has been exceptional,” said Sutton. “The company has never filed this many new U.S. patent applications in a single year in its history, let alone this early in the year.”
“These new patent applications relate to not only our core intravascular robotics technology, but also other possible clinical applications of our technology, and a number of different technical elements critical to the clinical success of medical robotics, including robotic systems, software, flexible instruments, sensing, navigation, and imaging,” added Bruce Barclay, president and CEO of Hansen Medical. “I am more confident than ever that our intellectual property portfolio, as supplemented by these new filings, will provide us an even stronger proprietary position for our current and future products, and increased potential to grow shareholder value, for years to come.”
Hansen produces intravascular robotics, developing products and technology designed to enable the accurate positioning, manipulation and control of catheters and catheter-based technologies.
Hansen Medical’s Magellan robotic system is used to cannulate peripheral vessels with a proprietary technology that delivers simultaneous distal tip control of a catheter and a sheath from a centralized, remote workstation. Photo courtesy of Hansen Medical Inc. |
“The creativity demonstrated by our technical teams, supported by our significant investment in R&D, which resulted in these new filings, has been exceptional,” said Sutton. “The company has never filed this many new U.S. patent applications in a single year in its history, let alone this early in the year.”
“These new patent applications relate to not only our core intravascular robotics technology, but also other possible clinical applications of our technology, and a number of different technical elements critical to the clinical success of medical robotics, including robotic systems, software, flexible instruments, sensing, navigation, and imaging,” added Bruce Barclay, president and CEO of Hansen Medical. “I am more confident than ever that our intellectual property portfolio, as supplemented by these new filings, will provide us an even stronger proprietary position for our current and future products, and increased potential to grow shareholder value, for years to come.”
Hansen produces intravascular robotics, developing products and technology designed to enable the accurate positioning, manipulation and control of catheters and catheter-based technologies.