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BEIJING, Dec. 9, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- BMC Medical Co., Ltd. (BMC) is a specialist of sleep diagnosis and therapy in China. On Nov. 20, 2013, ResMed filed patent infringement actions against BMC in a German court in DUSSELDORF, Germany, right before the commencement of the MEDICA (World Forum for Medicine) trade fair, temporarily prohibiting BMC from selling or marketing certain products in Germany without a further court order. Those products are BMC's RESmart CPAP devices and BMC's Willow/FeaLite nasal pillows patient interface.
ResMed released a statement that it won a preliminary injunction order against several patent-infringing activities by BMC right after the injunction was in place.
According to Dr. Ulrich Worm, head of IP Germany and Partner of Mayer Brown LLP, a well-known international law firm retained by BMC to defend BMC in the patent infringement actions, "The preliminary injunctions were invoked in ex parte proceedings, which means that the court did not and could not take into account BMC's side of the story. The court's decision to grant the preliminary injunction does not mean the court has concluded that BMC's products infringed the patents. The court has made no such conclusion. Until now, no hearing is conducted. Instead, the preliminary injunctions were granted on the condition that ResMed compensates BMC for any damages incurred as the result of this Preliminary Injunction if the court eventually finds no patent infringement."
James Xu, President of BMC, stated, "We will take all the measures required to defend our IP and products, thus protecting our consumer and business interests against the preliminary injunctions."
On July 19, 2013, ResMed initiated two legal proceedings in the U.S. at the ITC (International Trade Committee) and the Federal District Court of Southern California, alleging that BMC infringed its patent. BMC has retained a noted 337 and patent specialist, Gary Hnath of Mayer Brown LLP, to fully contest the proceedings. Gary Hnath has indicated that he is confident that BMC will be able to demonstrate that each patent asserted by ResMed in the U.S. is either not infringed, invalid, or both.
