ResMed (NYSE:RMD) said it paid a total of $25 million to settle a lawsuit filed in Australia by the University of Sydney accusing it of breaking a licensing deal and patent infringement.
The university sued San Diego-based ResMed in 2007 in the Federal Court of Australia, alleging that it failed to pay royalties and infringed patents covering sleep apnea masks. ResMed counter-sued and the case went into forced mediation in May 2013.
The mediation resulted in a "new partnership" and the $25 million payout to the school to "support its work, including the establishment of 2 perpetual academic chairs called the ResMed Chair of Sleep Medicine for sleep-disordered breathing with a focus on chronic disease and the ResMed Chair of Biomedical Engineering with an emphasis on bioinformatics research, as well as funding for research in related areas," according to a press release.
The deal prompted the Australian court to dismiss the case in June, according to a U.S. regulatory filing that details the settlement.
ResMed agreed to pony up a total of $24.8 million including $9.9 million to establish the 2 academic chairs, $4.9 million over 5 years " to be used by the university to support research in the fields of sleep medicine and biomedical engineering," according to the filing, and another $10.0 million to settle the legal dispute. That breaks down to a $1.3 million payment to settle the case and more that $8.7 million to cover prior royalties, according to the filing.
