Healthcare patent appeal considered

WELLINGTON: Fisher & Paykel Healthcare is considering whether to appeal a ruling by the Regional Court in Munich that rival ResMed did not infringe its patents in the continuing intellectual property dispute for its face and nasal masks.

Aucklandbased F&P Healthcare said the court ruled its German utility model patent DE 20 2013 012 358 U1 was not infringed upon and ‘‘the company is considering whether to appeal this decision’’.

It did not specify what products were involved.

In a separate release, however, Californiabased ResMed said the court had ruled its AirSense 10, AirCurve 10, Lumis and their humidifiers do not infringe an F&P Healthcare German utility model.

F&P Healthcare said a further case is before the same court regarding its European patent number EP 2 116 271 against the same ResMed products. A decision on this patent is expected during 2018.

In the UK, ResMed agreed to revoke two UK patents and a trial is currently under way to consider revocation of a third ResMed patent and ResMed’s counterclaim for infringement, F&P Healthcare said.

These are the same three patents asserted by ResMed in Germany and are subject to opposition proceedings filed by F&P Healthcare in the European Patent Office.

F&P Healthcare said it had absorbed pretax patent litigation costs of $20.7 million during the year to March 31 and expected to incur litigationrelated expenses at a similar runrate in the 2018 financial year.

F&P Healthcare shares were down 0.8% at $12.56 but are up 49% so far this year. —