On June 9, 2025, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) ruled for Sughrue’s client Cardiovalve Ltd. and against Edwards Life Sciences Corporation in affirming the Patent Trademark Appeal Board’s (PTAB’s) Inter Partes Review decision finding the claims of Cardiovalve’s  U.S. Patent No. 10,702,385 are not unpatentable.  Sughrue partners William H. Mandir and David E. Emery represented Cardiovalve in both the Inter Partes Review proceeding and Federal Circuit appeal.  The ‘385 patent is directed to methods of using a prosthetic valve support that facilitates minimally invasive (e.g., transcatheter and/or transluminal) implantation of a prosthetic valve at a native valve of the patient.  The CAFC ruled  for Cardiovalve on all issues on appeal, finding that (1) the Board did not err by holding the entire coupling member of the prior art Goldfarb reference, and not just its male element as Edwards argued, constituted the claimed “support portion”; (2) the Board correctly held that Goldfarb’s collar was not the claimed “support portion”; and (3) the Board correctly construed and applied the “advancing” limitation of the claims.