Ballard Spahr Helps AES Controls Pursue Patent for Ventilator Alternative in Face of Shortage

A patent application recently filed by Ballard Spahr attorney Joseph P. Anderson III on behalf of client AES Controls covers the company’s technology that adapts readily available CPAP machines to invasive or non-invasive Stage 1 ventilators—a lifesaving accomplishment given the ongoing ventilator shortage.

Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines are non-invasive and typically used for sleep apnea. Yet, as the country faces a critical shortage of ventilators during the coronavirus crisis, AES Controls has created a controller for CPAP machines that will allow them to function as ventilators. The controllers:

• can be attached to either a non-invasive ventilation mask or an endotracheal tube;
• will regulate breathing modulation and;
• have an anti-aerosolization containment / filtration measures for expired breath; and
• can convert used or new units.

The first manufactured conversions will be shipped to New York City and Brooklyn this week. Next week, AES Controls will start partnering with manufacturers to scale up production to 10,000 a week, depending on availability of parts.

Mr. Anderson, a partner in Ballard Spahr’s Atlanta office, has extensive experience in the medical device technology sectors. He has prepared, filed, and prosecuted utility and design patent applications, both domestically and internationally. His representative technologies include catheters, surgical systems and tools, prosthetics, tissue products, heart valves, and medical imaging.