Judge overturns ICU Medical win over RyMed in patent infringement spat

ICU Medical (NSDQ:ICUI) lost a round in its years-long patent infringement battle with RyMed Technologies after a federal judge in Delaware overturned a jury’s verdict in its favor.

San Clemente, Calif.-based ICU Medical won a jury decision in the U.S. District Court for Delaware in 2010 that RyMed infringed a pair of its patents. (Another jury narrowed that ruling last year.)

Last month Judge Leonard Stark shot down the original win for ICU Medical, ruling that the company failed to overcome “prosecution history estoppel," a legal doctrine that bars a patent holder from asserting infringement of claims it narrowed by amending the patent.

"We are currently considering options to appeal or to proceed to the damages phase of the case," ICU Medical said in a regulatory filing.

In 2010, a jury found that technology employed in Franklin, Tenn.-based RyMed’s InVision Plus IV connector infringed 2 patents owned by ICU Medical covering its Clave needle-free IV connectors. A later trial found that an updated version of RyMed’s InVision device did not infringe on ICU Medical’s intellectual property.