It’s the end of a years-long patent war between Smith & Nephew (FTSE:SN, NYSE:SNN) and Kinetic Concepts Inc. involving negative-pressure wound therapy patents licensed from Wake Forest University, according to Smith & Nephew.
KCI and Smith & Nephew – through its Hull, England-based Advanced Wound Care unit – have been trading claims and counter-claims since May 2007, when Smith & Nephew acquired Blue Sky Medical Group Inc., a California-based device manufacturer that had developed its own NPWT business line. KCI and Blue Sky had already been slugging it out in court for several years over the technology, which is designed to promote healing by gently removing fluids and infectious material from wounds using vacuum devices and tubes in the wound covering.
A year ago KCI bowed out, saying it lost its appetite for the battle after a federal judge ruled the patents invalid. Now Smith & Nephew says it’s settled with Wake Forest, ending the war.
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Yesterday, as it announced its 3rd-quarter results, Smith & Nephew said it’s putting the remaining legal cases to bed without providing any specifics.
"Smith & Nephew has entered into a global settlement agreement with Wake Forest University that will resolve all existing NPWT patent litigation between the 2 parties. The terms of the agreement are confidential," according to a press release.
The settlement reduced SNN’s advanced wound management unit’s trading margin was 2.5% lower during Q3 2012, "largely due to the settlement with Wake Forest University."
In August, a federal appeals court remanded a lawsuit back to a lower court, ordering Judge Royal Furgeson of the U.S. District Court for Western Texas to give more weight to a jury’s March 2010 that Smith & Nephew’s Renasys F negative-pressure wound therapy device violates a pair of patents owned by Wake Forest University and licensed to KCI.
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