Invalidity dossier
US 6432437
Soft tissue augmentation material
Current assignee: Merz Aesthetics Inc
Added 9/23/2026, 10:54:31 AM
Active provider: DeepSeek · deepseek-flash
Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
Patent Overview — US 6,432,437 B1
Title: Soft tissue augmentation material
Patent number: US6432437B1
Inventor: William G. Hubbard
Original assignee: Bioform Inc
Current assignee (as listed): Merz Aesthetics Inc
Application number: US09/288,999
Filing date: 1998-08-04
Priority date: 1992-02-11 (listed as an assumption, not a legal conclusion)
Publication/grant date: 2002-08-13
Anticipated expiration: 2012-02-11
Status: Expired – Fee Related
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US6432437/en
Purpose and plain-language scope. The patent concerns biocompatible compositions for soft tissue augmentation. Stated uses include urethral sphincter augmentation for treating incontinence, filling soft tissue voids or creating soft tissue blebs, mammary implants, and treating unilateral vocal cord paralysis (the "Definitions" section). The compositions are described as injectable: the biomaterial is combined with a biocompatible fluid acting as a lubricant to improve injectability of the suspension, and can be introduced by syringe intradermally or subcutaneously, or into internal tissues such as sphincters.
Materials described in the excerpt. Candidate biocompatible materials named include collagen; gelatin beads; natural or synthetic polymer beads such as polytetrafluoroethylene, silicone rubber, and hydrogel polymers (e.g., polyacrylonitrile-polyacrylamide hydrogels); calcium salts including hydroxyapatite; crystalline materials; biocompatible ceramics; biocompatible metals such as stainless steel particles; and glass. Textured microparticles (silicone, polytetrafluoroethylene, ceramics, or other inert substances) are also mentioned. Suggested physiological vehicles include saline, starches, polysaccharides, and organic oils or fluids. The excerpt references prior documents (UK Application 2,227,176 to Ersek et al; US 4,803,075 to Wallace et al; US 4,837,285 to Berg et al) regarding microparticle injection and collagen-based compositions.
What the excerpt does not establish. The supplied text is expressly an excerpt with omitted content, and it does not include the claims, the full written description, examples, or figures. Therefore this overview cannot state the actual claimed scope, claim limitations, particle size or concentration ranges, or the specific compositions covered. It also does not establish inventorship beyond the listed inventor, priority validity, or classification details beyond those shown.
No litigation, ownership-transfer, validity, or prior-art analysis is provided here.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:54:05 PM
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Litigation summary
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Proceedings on file (0)
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No PTAB proceedings on file. This patent has not been challenged via IPR, PGR, or CBM. The absence is itself a signal — well-asserted patents eventually attract IPRs. The LLM analysis below may surface filings the ODP feed hasn’t indexed yet.
PTAB challenges
AIA trial proceedings at the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board — IPR, PGR, and CBM. Petitioners, judge panels, claim-level invalidation outcomes from Final Written Decisions, and Federal Circuit appeals. The single most important defensive datapoint after litigation history.
Assignment history
Inventors, original assignee, and the chain of ownership recorded with the USPTO — including the correspondent attorney who recorded each assignment, since shell-LLC chains often share one repeat-player attorney even when the entity names look unrelated. Surfaces NPE / patent-troll patterns: shell-entity transfers, known asserters in the chain, repeat correspondent fingerprints, pre-litigation assignments, and bankruptcy fire-sales.
Prior art
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Obviousness
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Extensions
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Derivative works
Defensive disclosure: derivative variations of each claim designed to render future incremental improvements obvious or non-novel.