Visx' European Patent claims limited:
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
The European Patent Office has found that eight of Visx' claims for its European ophthalmological patent are invalid. The remaining claims for its Patent No 0218427 - Apparatus for Ophthalmological Surgery - were held allowable. The office upheld Summit Technology's opposition to its excimer laser competitor at the end of October (see Clinica No 679, p 14). In a second patent opposition, the European Patent Office limited the scope of Visx' claims for its European Patent No 0257836B1 on the method and apparatus for performing ophthalmic laser surgery.