Biolase has announced that the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued an office action in a reexamination proceeding rejecting all the claims of US-based CAO Group's US patents that were subject to reexamination.
Biolase chairman and CEO Federico Pignatelli said that the company is pleased with the results of the latest office action issued by the USPTO, which rejected all 37 claims in the CAO Group's patent that were subject to reexamination.
"BIOLASE's intellectual property ('IP') portfolio is the cornerstone of laser technology in dentistry and several of our competitors currently license our IP in their own laser products," Pignatelli added.
The claimed novelty of the single asserted patent concerns to how fiber is stored, and does not relate to the actual advanced design, features and functions of the ezlase soft-tissue diode laser.
The ezlase has been replaced by the new Epic 10 diode platform which was released in late 2012.
Biolase began the reexamination in response to the lawsuit the CAO Group filed against BIolase on 24 April 2012.