Fisher & Paykel come out on top in German patent spat with ResMed

December 1, 2016 By Fink Densford Leave a Comment

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare (NZE:FPH) said last Friday that a German court overturned preliminary injunctions granted to ResMed (NYSE:RMD) in a patent infringement case filed in August.

With the overturned injunction, Fisher & Paykel said it has resumed sales of its Simplus full face mask, Eson nasal mask and Eson 2, which San Diego-based ResMed claimed infringed on its patents.

Fisher & Paykel shares have jumped on the news, rising 6.2% to close at $8.72. The company had previously lost more than 21% since ResMed filed legal action on August 18.

“We are pleased with the outcome of the first two hearings in these patent dispute proceedings and we remain confident in regards to future proceedings,” Fisher & Paykel CEO Lewis Gradon said in a press release.

Fisher & Paykel initiated the hostilities with an August 15 lawsuit in a California federal court, alleging that ResMed’s AirSense 10 and AirCurve 10 flow generators, ClimateLineAir heated air tubing and Swift mask line infringe 11 of its patents. The Auckland, N.Z.-based company moved to withdraw that suit the next day, but reserved the right to sue again, according to documents filed with the U.S. District Court for Central California.

On August 18, ResMed announced a responding barrage, with actions filed in another California federal court, plus Germany, New Zealand and the ITC. The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for Southern California alleges that Fisher & Paykel’s Simplus full face mask, Eson nasal mask and Eson 2 nasal mask infringe 4 of ResMed’s patents and asks the court to invalidate its Down Under rival’s patents, find that it’s not infringing, or both.

ResMed sought an injunction from the ITC banning Fisher & Paykel from importing the allegedly infringing devices and claimed a win in Germany. The Munich District Court granted ResMed’s bid for a pair of preliminary injunctions stopping the sale of the Simplus, Eson and Eson 2 devices. In New Zealand the company is seekingto halt the manufacture and exportation of the devices, ResMed said.

Material from Reuters was used in this report.

Medline reopens Illinois medtech sterilization plant
Medline Industries resumed sterilization operations at its Waukegan, Ill., plant on Friday, following state certification of the company’s $10 million in emission-control upgrades, the company announced. The Waukegan plant reopening follows the decision this week by officials in Cobb County, Ga., to allow an Atlanta Sterigenics EtO plant to reopen for 21 days to sterilize… […]
DeviceTalks Weekly Podcast: Deconstructing medtech’s alphabet soup – DPA, MDR, FDA are all in the news
In this week’s DeviceTalks Weekly, we’ll examine how governmental effort, both foreign and domestic, are hitting the medtech industry. Our guests include Tracy Eberly, CEO of Fang Consulting, a regulatory advisory group. Eberly will update listeners on what pushing back the MDR deadline could mean for medtech companies and why some companies may be less than… […]
AdvaMed: Invoking Defense Production Act could hinder U.S. medtech imports
Forcing manufacturers to repurpose their production lines to make equipment to fight the coronavirus epidemic might actually hurt the U.S. supply of those items, the head of medtech trade group AdvaMed said today. AdvaMed officials have talked with U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar and FDA commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn about medtech… […]
March 2020 Issue: Is software key to medical 3D printing innovation?
What’s the word on ethylene oxide? The coronavirus pandemic has pushed a lot of news out of people’s minds, but medtech has other big issues to deal with. For instance, 8 months have passed since the FDA issued a public challenge for alternatives to ethylene oxide (EtO) as a sterilant for medical devices. As I… […]
GE Healthcare quadruples ventilator production at Wisconsin plant
General Electric Healthcare (NYSE:GE) this week announced that it is doubling its production capacity for ventilators and expanding its Madison, Wisconsin, production line to 24-hour operation. In a report on GE’s website, the company shared that it has doubled its capacity of ventilator production with plans to double it again by the end of the second… […]
FDA issues FAQ on 3D-printed equipment against coronavirus
Intrepid 3D printing companies and individuals who want to print masks, gowns and other personal protective equipment (PPE) to fight the coronavirus pandemic might want to take a look at the FDA’s new frequently asked questions page on the topic. While it says it welcomes coronavirus-fighting efforts, the agency said that 3D-printed masks are unlikely… […]
Software is enabling medical 3D printing innovation: Here’s how
The 3D printers themselves get a lot of attention, but for 3D-printing to become ubiquitous in the medtech space, software will have to play a key role. A 3D printer without software to tell it where to place the material is a really nice, expensive coffee table, according to Scott Rader, a former Stratasys GM… […]
This open source ventilator hackathon could help fight the coronavirus
Infineon engineers developed a 3D printed lung ventilator to help address the shortage of ventilators due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The German federal government held a hackathon called #WirvsVirus (“We against the virus”) where 42,000 people met to find solutions to challenges from the coronavirus. Infineon engineers, led by Mahmoud Ismail who has a doctorate… […]
Could these DIY ventilators stop coronavirus from killing people?
Amid the global crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic, hospitals and healthcare facilities are reporting shortages of vital equipment that not only keeps the patients safe, but the staffers, too. One important device for which demand has ramped up is ventilators for patients who need assistance with their breathing due to the respiratory effects of… […]
DIY ventilators? Not unless there’s a zombie apocalypse.
News reports of the COVID-19 virus have given a lot of space to the shortage of respiratory ventilators. The Society of Critical Care Medicine claims at least 950,000 U.S. patients could need ventilators but hospitals only have 160,000. One response to statistics like these has been a movement among open-source promoters to initiate community-designed ventilators… […]
FDA announces EUAs related to ventilators to treat coronavirus
Amid a shortage of ventilators for treating coronavirus, the FDA put out a statement confirming its stance on issuing emergency use authorizations for potential temporary fixes. The FDA said it is operating on the basis of a EUA determination that the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services issues on Feb. 4. Earlier this week, HHS declared… […]