Fusion cage vs Spinal Arthroplasty
When we look at the issued patents for fusion cages and spinal arthroplasty we can observe the following trends :-
- The number of arthroplasty patents issued increased steadily but showed a slight drop in 2005.
- There was a more dramatic drop in the fusion cage issued patents in year 2005.
Looking at the number of published patents, we observe that in 2004 the trend reversed with more patents on arthroplasty being published. It will be very interesting to observe the ratio of arthroplasty to fusion cage patents issued by the end of 2006.
Looking at the top 10 inventors in the fusion cage industry we observe that there is one inventor that dominates the industry. Gary K. Michelson is the most prolific inventor in the fusion cage industry with more than 50 issued patents and more than 70 published patents. (See our previous post on Michelson)
Interestingly when we compare the spinal arthroplasty industry, instead of a single dominant inventor, there are six very prolific inventors, leading one being Joseph P. Errico.
Data abstracted from Spine IP Report from MedicineLodge Inc and available through RY Publications.
