A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. has dismissed a Fisher & Paykel Healthcare (NZE:FPH) appeal of a breathing masks patent decision involving ResMed (NYSE:RMD).
The two companies already settled all outstanding patent infringement disputes worldwide in a deal announced in February, with Resmed then seeking to dismiss Fisher & Paykel’s appeal of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit agreed to dismiss today.
The court order said: “In supplemental filings, Fisher has asserted that it continues to develop products that ResMed may at some future date allege infringe claims of the ’556 patent. However, Fisher has not provided any, let alone sufficient, detail regarding features of its future products to enable us to determine that its activities create a substantial risk of future infringement of the ’556 patent. Absent such a showing, Fisher cannot establish standing to maintain this appeal, and this court lacks authority to consider the merits. Therefore, the appeal must be dismissed.”
The deal between the two companies early this year ended infringement proceedings against ResMed’s AirSense flow generators, AirFit P10, Swift LT and Swift FX masks and ClimateLine heated tubes — or against Fisher & Paykel’s Simplus, Eson or Eson 2 products.