US Based ResMed Wins Patent Lawsuit against Chinese Manufacturer
The International Trade Commission ruled against BMC Medical Co. last week ordering it to stop importing, advertising, or selling its products in the US.
The largest US manufacturer of CPAP products files patent infringement suit
ResMed, the largest US manufacturer of sleep disorder products, filed a patent infringement lawsuit against the Chinese medical device maker, BMC Medical Corp. with offices in the US.
The lawsuit was filed by ResMed patent attorneys with the ITC, an independent, semi-judicial federal agency that frequently hears patent infringement cases and hands out ruling on unfair trade practices by MNCs and others manufacturers.
On Dec. 23rd, the ITC ruled against BMC finding that two of its iVolvo line of nasal products, iVolvo1 and iVolvo N2 along with Willow nasal pillow and iVolvo full face mask infringed on ResMed’s existing patents. The court has prohibited BMC from promoting and selling any of these products in the US.
ResMed to appeal the ITC ruling on humidifiers
The ITC only sustained a BMC challenge to one of the ResMed patents related to humidifiers. ResMed says that it is planning to appeal the ITC order on this patent. ResMed stated that its patents are invented keeping the welfare of its users in mind. Their business is founded on this welfare while product development is based on research that is patient-centric. As a result, their products are of the highest quality and most comfortable. According to ResMed Chief Administrator and general counsel, David Pendarvis, this is why they closely guard their patents.
ResMed has further stated that they are pleased with the court’s decision to protect many of their patents from infringement by its competitors who have never spent the required resources in terms of time and money to develop them. Makers of sleep deprivation devices, ResMed has over 5,000 pending design patents on airways flow generators, humidifiers, and CPAP therapy.
China is not the most innovative country around – they love to cheat off of Americans. The copied the F-35 too!
ITUS settles patent lawsuit against AU Optronics Corp.
In other patent related news, ITUS Corporation reported in a press release that it has settled its patent lawsuit against AU Optronics Corporation. AUO is expected to pay $9 million and terminate its rights to ITUSs “nFED” or Nano Field Emission Display technology, and the transfer of ITUS’s electrophoretic display patent portfolio. According to ITUS’s President and CEO, Robert Berman, the settlement helps the company achieve due consideration for its EPD patents and gives them the right to freely develop nFED technology. Berman is of the opinion that ITUS’s strong cash position and the potential of patented technologies it owns, will allow the company to expand significantly.
The settlement brings an end to a contract dispute between ITUS and AUO that stems from two joint development and license deals signed in May 2011.
The ever changing face of patent infringement lawsuits
Patent attorneys continue to debate over the rights of co-patent owners to block patent infringement lawsuits by co-owners. The University of New Mexico’s patent licensing department has filed a petition with the US Supreme Court with reference to its lawsuit against Intel Corp. claiming that there was no common law or statutory basis for allowing co-owner of a patent to block a suit filed by another owner.
On Dec. 16th last year, UNM’s patent attorney argued that the Federal Court had made an error in its June ruling against the University when it said that the co-owner had the authority to block a patent infringement suit filed by another one of its owners.
