While March is Women’s History Month, women are shaping the future of healthcare, as they make approximately 80 percent of healthcare decisions. Hospitals and physicians are continuing to push the envelope of what is possible, pursuing state-of-the-art medical care for breast cancer and other conditions that affect women. This year’s Chief Medical Officers Roundtable, which explores the latest advances in patient care for women.
Scott Kobler, McCarter & English, LLP
A hospital, weighing options for computer software to process pharmaceutical bar code, information, recently had to decide between developing such software in-house or licensing software from a prospective third-party vendor. After analyzing the reactive costs, the hospital opted for in-house. The vendor responded by pointing out the need for owned patents to protect software, and suggested that a license was necessary even if the software was development in-house.
A Newark-based intellectual property team at McCarter, let by Mark Nikolsky, Esq., investigated fully, reviewing the patents and the client’s proposed in-house technology. After this investigation, which included meetings with the hospital involving meetings with the hospital involving detailed technical review of the proposed software design, Mark advised the client that developing its own software would not infringe on the patents, and told the vendor that a license was not needed. The vendor was never heard from again. So rather than paying unnecessary fees for unneeded licensees, the hospital kept the work in-house, saved money and avoided a protracted fight with the vendor. So much of today’s economy, particularly in New Jersey, is healthcare-related, and so much in healthcare is tied inextricably to intellectual property. The states are almost always high.