Cape Town, South Africa, 5 May 2017. Following the award of a UK Patent (GB2,509,193) in July 2015 for its dual-modality breast imaging system, CapeRay is pleased to announce the award of another patent (US Patent 9,636,073) for the same technology by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The issue of this US patent took advantage of the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH), an initiative that speeds up the examination process for corresponding applications that are filed in participating intellectual property offices.

“We would like to acknowledge the contribution of our patent attorneys with the award of this pivotal patent,” said Kit Vaughan, CEO of CapeRay. “Through the efforts of Érik van der Vyver and Ilne van der Westhuizen of Von Seidels in Cape Town, Michele Mayberry of New River Valley Intellectual Property Law in Blacksburg, Virginia, and Nathan Evans of Woods Rogers in Charlottesville, Virginia, we were able to persuade the USPTO examiner that the claims for our invention were both novel and non-obvious.”

CapeRay’s proprietary technology combines two fundamental breast imaging modalities –  X-rays and ultrasound – within the same platform, thus enabling both sets of images to be acquired at the same time, with the breast in the same orientation and degree of compression. “This patent not only protects Aceso, our existing product that integrates full-field digital mammography (FFDM) and automated breast ultrasound (ABUS),” said Vaughan. “It also protects Aegle, our future product that will combine digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) and ABUS in one platform.” CapeRay’s management team is optimistic that its Aceso and Aegle products will make a significant contribution to the early detection of breast cancer, particularly in women with dense breast tissue.

About Aceso  Aceso, by CapeRay, is the world’s first commercial breast imaging system that combines full-field digital mammography and automated breast ultrasound in a single device. Aceso has been successfully tested in two separate clinical trials, in May 2014 and then in November 2015, leading to journal publications, the first in Clinical Imaging in 2016, and the second more recently in Diagnostics. Aceso is currently being audited for the CE Mark.

About CapeRay Medical  Located in Cape Town, South Africa, CapeRay is the innovative medical device company that has imagined, engineered and commercialised Aceso. The company first secured ISO 13485 certification in mid-2012 and since that time has been working steadfastly to bring its Aceso system to market. For further information about the ground-breaking Aceso system or the company CapeRay, please visit the website: http://www.caperay.com.

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