Boston Scientific filed two petitions with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board on May 14, 2015 requesting inter partes review of Nevro’s U.S. Patent No. 8,359,102.    The petitions were assigned Case Nos. IPR2015-01203 and IPR2015-01204.  The ‘102 Patent, which is entitled “Selective High Frequency Spinal Cord Modulation for Inhibiting Pain with Reduced Side Effects, and Associated Systems and Methods,” issued on  January 22, 2013.  Figure 1 of the ‘102 Patent is shown below.

The first petition seeks review of Claims 1, 2, 11-15, 17-23, 25, and 26 of the ‘102 Patent as obvious based on six different grounds: 1) Claims 1, 2, 11-14, 17-22, 25, and 26 were challenged as being anticipated by MacDonald (U.S. Pat. No. 5,776,170); 2) Claims 1, 2, 15, 17-18, and 25-26 were challenged as being anticipated by Sluijter (U.S. Pat. No. 6,246,912); 3) Claims 1, 2, 17-23, 25 and 26 were challenged as being anticipated by Royle (U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2006/0009820); 4) Claims 1, 2, 11-15, 17-23, 25, and 26 were challenged as being obvious over MacDonald, either alone or in view of De Ridder (U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2011/0184488), Sluijter, and/or Royle; 5) Claims 1, 2, 11-15, 17-23, 25, and 26 were challenged as being obvious over Sluijter, either alone or in view of De Ridder, MacDonald and/or Royle; and 6) Claims 1, 2, 11-15, 17-23, 25, and 26 were challenged as being obvious over Royle, either alone or in view of De Ridder, MacDonald and/or Sluijter.

The second petition seeks review of the same claims, though on only two different grounds: 1) Claims 1, 2, 17-22, 25, and 26 were challenged as being anticipated by Knudson (U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2007/0073354); and 2) Claims 1, 2, 11-15, 17-23, 25, and 26 were challenged as being obvious over Knudson either alone or in view of De Ridder and/or MacDonald.

The petitions state that there is no related litigation.

Days before Boston Scientific filed the petitions, Nevro announced that its Senza spinal cord stimulation system received FDA approval.  Nevro states that it “intends to vigorously defend its intellectual property in this matter.”