Geigartt: thanks for the clarifications on HMSC's license. I had forgotten that the patents belonged to Scantek and that HMSC a licensee. They also have a license on trade secrets and know-how.
FWIW, US patents can not be extended. It's not like a copyright. Five months from now the US patent will expire, and that will be it.
The co. can try to patent some other feature of their product to get some protection, although I didn't see any mention of their having applied to do so.
I went to the IBM patent search engine patent.womplex.ibm.com to try to find the patents. It turns out there are quite a few patents whose abstracts include the word breast and temperature. Some of them sound kind of funny (liquid cooled brassiere, for example). I found what might or might not be aScantek patent. (The name Scantek does not appear itself in any patent since 1971, so presumably they bought them from other parties.)
Here's one possibility:
patent.womplex.ibm.com
INVENTORS:Meyers; Phillip H., New Orleans, LA
Greene; Franklin M., Flushing, NY
ASSIGNEES:E-Z-Em Company, Inc., Westbury, NYISSUED:Dec.ÿ16, 1980ÿFILED: Mar.ÿ16, 1979SERIAL NUMBER: 021112ÿMAINT. STATUS: INTL.ÿCLASS (Ed.ÿ):A61B 10/00; U.S. CLASS:128-736; 073-356; FIELD OF SEARCH:128-280,282,379,399-401,736 ; 073-356 ; AGENTS:McAulay, Fields, Fisher, Goldstein & Nissen;
ABSTRACT:ÿÿ An apparatus for detecting temperature variations over selected regions of living tissue. The invention relates to the apparatus and to the method of detecting said temperature variations for aid in the early detection of malignant tissue in the breasts. The invention provides for the use of liquid crystals encapsulated between elastic flexible sheets which represent a composite film. The crystals are responsive to changes in temperature of said tissue to display a color pattern on said film representative of said temperature variations. The film conforms to the contour of the tissue to which it is applied, without materially deforming said tissue, by evacuating air from between said film and said tissue. The color pattern produced on said film is observed and is recorded photographically to obtain a thermogram of said temperature variations. The contoured film and the tissue are fan cooled for a relatively short period of time to produce a more sensitive color pattern on said film representative of said temperature variations.
Here's another:
patent.womplex.ibm.com
4186731 : Topical Thermograph
------------------------------------------------------------------------
INVENTORS:Clark, III; William T., New Orleans, LA 70121
ASSIGNEES:none ISSUED:Feb.ÿ5 , 1980ÿFILED: Mayÿ15, 1978SERIAL NUMBER: 905849ÿMAINT. STATUS: INTL.ÿCLASS (Ed.ÿ2):A61B 5/00; U.S. CLASS:128-736FIELD OF SEARCH:128-2 H,2 A,2 R,416-418 ; 073-356 ; AGENTS:Littlepage & Webner;
ABSTRACT:ÿÿ Opposite edges of a flexible sheet of thermographic material are held so that when the surface of the sheet is forced against a body surface, resultant opposing forces applied to the opposite edges of the sheet press all the engaging surfaces against the body surface with substantially uniform pressure. |
