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Grace Medical

PatSnap customer: Grace Medical - A global market leader offering an extensive range of products to treat disorders of the ear, nose and throat

Bringing the latest in technology and design to the ENT marketplace

Company representative

Tony Prescott, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Grace Medical

Tony Prescott of Grace Medical

Facts about Grace Medical

Industry:

Medical supplies

Headquarters:

Tennessee, USA

Company size:

30

Grace Medical's PatSnap suite:

Professional Services

Quote from Tony Prescott

"The team at PatSnap went above and beyond to provide a very comprehensive and detailed IP report."

-Tony Prescott,
Senior Vice President and CTO, Grace Medical

The obstacle

The lengthy amount of time required to conduct an IP search related to a licensing opportunity.

The solution

Cost-effective and comprehensive IP search services from PatSnap’s Professional Services Team.

The outcome

PatSnap’s Professional Services team helped Grace Medical gain a clearer picture of the technology up for licensing to make an informed business decision.

Making easier product decisions with the help of PatSnap’s Professional Services team

Grace Medical is a medical devices company specializing in the manufacture of ventilation tubes, middle ear implants and specialty instrumentation for Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) professionals. Based in Memphis, Tennessee, the business started out of a garage and has since grown into a global market leader in the development of ENT products.

When it comes to their product development approach, Grace Medical relies mainly on their relationships with ENT surgeons, in addition to information gleaned from competitors’ patent applications, to inform their product decisions. When surgeons suggest new ideas, the company starts their preliminary patent research using publicly available resources, to ensure there’s nothing in the way of them commercializing the idea.

A laser sharp understanding of IP

According to Tony Prescott, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Grace Medical, preliminary patent research is critical to their product development process. A company with limited, highly-focused resources, they require a laser sharp understanding of the IP landscape and their freedom to operate before investing in the development of a new product. “We can’t afford to spend money and resources developing products that cannot be sold because a proper IP search was not performed at the beginning of a project,” said Prescott. “That being said, such searches can take a significant amount of time to structure and conduct properly.”

Their need for a clear understanding of the IP landscape coupled with the inherent complexities of IP research led them to outsource the task to PatSnap’s Professional Services team. According to Prescott, the decision to partner with PatSnap reaped immediate time savings for the Grace Medical team. “PatSnap offered a team perspective during the formative stage of the search strategy that saved significant time versus having to wade in the weeds,” said Prescott.

Leveraging patent search to close in on a licensing opportunity

The support of PatSnap’s team was particularly useful when Grace Medical was working to license a new technology from a leading medical institution. The proposal from the institution included a list of new patent applications, which required comprehensive research on the IP that was allowable, what was already in use by competitors and what was in the public domain. “We already had discovered a few patents that were somewhat related and forwarded those along with our own patent application to PatSnap,” said Prescott. “We asked them to perform a search for patent applications, current patents, and expired patents as it related to the new technology.”

PatSnap’s Professional Services team assisted Grace Medical with conducting a comprehensive search of the technology on a worldwide basis, providing them with a complete, detailed report of all related IP. According to Prescott, PatSnap’s research helped Grace Medical gain a clearer picture of the technology up for licensing. “PatSnap’s procedure for structuring the search according to key features of the proposed new technology helped us to drill down precisely to the relevant information,” he said. With the help of PatSnap’s Professional Services team, Grace Medical made an informed decision that was in the best interests of the company and gained greater confidence in their innovation strategy moving forward.