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BEIJING, Dec. 2, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- BMC Medical Co., Ltd. ("BMC") announced today a first success in a first round of a global battle with ResMed.
"A high possibility, that the patent in suit is not valid," the District Court of Munich I stated in a decision (official docket number 7 O 24459/13), referring to the German counterpart of ResMed's European Patent No. 1 210 139 B1 relating to a CPAP system with detachable water tank. The Court removed the preliminary injunction based on that German counterpart, and stayed a parallel infringement proceeding until an opinion on validity in an ongoing invalidity proceeding before the German Patent Court. BMC reserves the right to possible damage claims.
Furthermore, another European patent asserted by ResMed against BMC, EP 0 661 071 relating to Auto On/Off function, has expired.
"We will continue to proceed with the ongoing legal proceedings, especially the invalidity actions against ResMed's patent, while monitoring competitors' patent portfolio. Our proactive approach has proved to be successful," said Mr. Xu, president of BMC Medical.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., the International Trade Commission (ITC) recently decided to review earlier determinations against BMC made in a 337 investigation by an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) below. The ITC apparently believed the ALJ improperly defined the scope of ResMed's patent protection and modified the ALJ's interpretation of key claim terms, effectively forcing ResMed to withdraw one patent, U.S. Patent No. 7,926,487. The validity of another patent, U.S. Reissue Patent No. RE 44,453 ("'453 patent") is reviewed, as well. In addition, the ITC raises the question of whether ResMed satisfies the domestic industry requirement, i.e., whether ResMed even had the right to a 337 investigation to begin with.
The '453 patent is the only patent ResMed asserted against BMC's CPAP breathing machines. BMC has already brought the validity problems to the attention of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and asked for an inter partes review (IPR) of the '453 patent. The IPR is ongoing.
In China, BMC challenged validity of seven (7) ResMed patents, and the SIPO has already declared four (4) invalid, while continuing to review the other three (3).
For more information about BMC, please visit http://en.bmc-medical.com/.
