Medtronic has proven that it can hold its own in the medical device arena, but is there trepidation behind closed doors with the development of Google’s Verily? Medtronic executive Dr. Stephen Oesterle previously predicted that Google will be his company’s “arch-competitor” in 20 years. But Medtronic CEO Omar Ishrak doesn’t seem to feel too threatened.
Despite Verily’s med-tech advances, including recently filing a patent on a laser ablation device for the removal of surgical tissue via electromagnetic radiation and partnering with Novartis to develop “smart” contact lenses that could potentially help treat diabetes patients, Ishrak seems to feel pretty confident about the space.
With the Rise of AI, What IP Disputes in Healthcare Are Likely to Emerge?
Munck Wilson Mandala Partner Greg Howison shared his perspective on some of the legal ramifications around AI, IP, connected devices and the data they generate, in response to emailed questions.
He shared his thoughts with Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal:
“They bring a different capability compared to what we bring, whether that will create a competitor or partner is tough to say, and it could be both,” Ishrak said. “If they’re in health care and we’re in health care, we’ll be interacting in some way. But health care is a very big space, with efforts all the way from prevention to acute care to clinical trial development to consumer-level awareness. In that broad space, there’s plenty of room for everybody, whether one is a competitor or not is very difficult to say.”
He reportedly added that he believes there will be more partnerships rather than competition. That has proven to be true with Medtronic partnering with Samsung and IBM’s Watson, and Google has already made ties with Johnson & Johnson and Biogen.
We shall see how things play out, but it appears that there might just be room for everybody in the playing field.
