Dr. Gary Michelson - Spine Wars - stock manipulation?

Very interesting article. Does Gary really own all these patents? We've all heard the phrase that patents are only worth your ability to sue people for patent infringement to protect it. This article goes a little deeper. Are most of Gary's patents as ridiculous as his paper clip patent? Are they worthless or only slightly different than other patents? Did Gary get a bunch of patents just so he could sue people?

I read a few articles where people said Gary infringed on their patents. Hard to know if someone is lying or not. I do know that Gary lies. I also know his paper clip patent is bull. How can he possibly claim that his much inferior clip is much superior to the original 1899 design?

I'm starting to think there may have been something interesting going on with Gary's big lawsuit win. I may ask my uncle who is a mechanical engineer who has some real patents and some that he admits would not work in the real world. My uncle did some medical patents that he joked wouldn't fit a human but maybe a horse. Perhaps anyone can patent anything. I'm sure the patent office would cash anyone's check. In fact one of my idiot friends got a patent. I thought maybe he was a savant. Now I realize a patent may mean nothing. Maybe I will patent something. Maybe I will patent my sterilization drug.

UPDATE: I always thought this might have been a deal just to increase share price. If you look at share price before and after the "settlement" with Gary, the company went from $50 to $60/share. With 1.02 billion shares the news of the "settlement" caused the total share value to increase by $10 billion dollars. That's a great return on investment, happy investors and insiders who probably then sold on the news. Gary's patents could be toilet paper and the company and shareholders would not give a shit, forgive the pun. It could be that the company wanted some positive news so they settled to spin this as a positive. I've seen companies spin worse. It's possible that Gary's wealth, if he truly received all the money and didn't cut a deal, could be fake, just like his desire to help spine patients.

I'll go into sec docs and patent docs tomorrow. My hunches have always been right. Things are always far worse than even I can imagine.

UPDATE: Actually Gary's patents are worth something but not because Gary invented anything. Gary was first to file a patent on someone else's design from years earlier. First to file gets the patent even if you just over hear someone talking about an idea. The original inventors stupidly talked about the invention of the threaded spinal cage at a spine symposium. Gary beat them by a few months because he was familiar with the process. Because Gary described not only the threaded cage but a method to insert anything into the spine, anyone who inserts anything into the spine will owe him money. Anyone who owns such a patent as Medtronic does now could receive good revenue from royalties and licensing.

http://www.healthpointcapital.com/research/2004/10/04/spine_wars_michelson_vs_the_industry/

Orthopedic and Dental Industry News Complete Archive »

Spine Wars: Michelson vs. the Industry? BY ROBIN R. YOUNG CFA, OCTOBER 4, 2004

If we've heard it once, we've heard it a dozen times. Gary Michelson, with attorneys in tow, haunts spine company booths at conferences like the upcoming NASS or CNS informing them of patent violations on the fly. Yikes! And last week a federal court jury ordered Sofamor Danek to pay Michelson about $110 million in a dispute over royalties for a number of its spinal fusion technologies.

Four years ago Michelson won a case (on Sofamor Danek's dime) against U.S. Surgical over his spine cage design.

Somewhat cynically I've said for years that the main value of a U.S. patent is that it gives you the opportunity to sue and be sued.

In reality, the US patent office has approved patents that are marginal patents and decided to let the courts sort out the mess. Once in the courts, it is a jury that decides the case. And in the words of Paul Simon, no jury of my peers would ever find me guilty. Indeed, can a jury of average citizens understand the intricacies of spinal fusion technology and markets, to the tune of $100 million? If this were truly a jury of Michelson and Sofamor Danek's peers, would this have been the verdict?
In last week's ruling, the Tennessee jury found that Sofamor Danek owed Dr. Gary Michelson $110 for a variety of spinal implant inventions that Sofamor Danek has been commercializing for years. In addition, the jury ordered Sofamor Danek to pay unspecified damages for patent infringement, according to court documents.

Dr. Michelson had claimed $1.7 billion in damages, lost royalties and compensation for failure to market his inventions."

(This is the comment of me, Mary Cummins. Gary has stated he invented these things to help patients, improve back surgery, eliminate any mistakes in surgery.... Why does Gary invent these things if his goal is to not share, market them and help people and their backs? He files patents just so he can sue people and get money. If anything, he is hampering progress and preventing people from getting help they can afford. He is a patent troll. He says he became a back surgeon because of his granny with a bad back. I'm starting to believe that's a load of horse shit. He said he wanted to help her and others like her. The only person he is helping is his pocket book. If his inventions are that great, let people use them for free to save people's backs. Doesn't he have enough money yet?

In fact, right now he has in his pocket the name of drugs that will end pet overpopulation right this second. I gave them to him. I'm sure others may have given him similar drugs. He says he wants to end pet overpopulation. He has the means in his hands right now. But no, he instead wants to develop a new drug he can patent and sell to people. Hey, I bet he will make a new sterilant. It will be one molecule different than current sterilants. He will patent it but not sell it or share it. He will wait for someone else to market it. Then he'll sue the shit out of them for money killing animals in the process.

Earlier I thought the big lawsuit win, settlement might have been a stock gimmick. I will research that some more. It's possible that releasing news about giving Gary $1.3 billion for "valuable patents that will make the company trillions" could cause the stock to uptick more than the payout, if there even was one. I will see what the news did to the share value of the company)


"What the jury did agree with and then ruled on accordingly was that Sofamor Danek had breached certain aspects of the purchase and licensing agreements with Dr. Michelson and his company, Karlin Technology as well as infringed certain of his patents.
The dispute between Michelson and Sofamor Danek goes back a few years. In 2001, it was Sofamor Danek that sued claiming that Dr. Michelson had tried to sell spine surgery tools and implants to Sofamor Danek's competitors in violation of an existing noncompete agreement. The outcome of that trial won't be known for about another month.
The implants and instruments, as best we can determine, refer to the following:

• The ATLANTIS' Anterior Cervical Plate System which is licensed under one or more of G. Karlin Michelson, M.D., Patent Nos.: 6,193,721; 6,398,783; 6,454,771.
• The COLORADO 2' Spinal System of spinal instrumentation. The guide tubes incorporate technology developed by Gary K. Michelson, M.D.
• The MD I through MD IV Bone Dowels implant methods and instruments incorporate technology developed by Gary K. Michelson, M.D.
• The ZEPHIR', PREMIER', and ATLANTIS' products are licensed under one or more of G. Karlin Michelson, M.D., Patent Nos.: 6,193,721; 6,398,783; 6,454,771.

Doing a quick search at the US Patent office, we came up with the following under Dr. Michelson:

• US Patent # 6,454,771 B1 Anterior cervical plating system Gary K. Michelson, 438 Sherman Canal, Venice, Calif. 90291 (US) Filed on Jan. 04, 2001, as Appl. No. 9/754,733
• US Patent #6,485,517 B1 Nested interbody spinal fusion implants Gary K. Michelson, 438 Sherman Canal, Venice, Calif. 90291 (US) Filed on May 05, 2000, as Appl. No. 9/566,272
• US Patent No. 6,416,528 to Gary K. Michelson of Venice, CA for Anterior cervical plating system, instrumentation, and method of installation

In addition, Dr. Michelson had licensed a number of spinal implant products to Centerpulse (now Zimmer Spine):

• The Trinica(TM) and Trinica(TM) Select Anterior Cervical Plate Systems technology. Invented by GARY KARLIN MICHELSON, M.D., these are covered by one or more of the following: U.S. Patent Nos. 6,193,721, 6,398,783, 6,416,528, 6,454,771 and D449,692; and pending U.S. and international patent applications.