BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - July 30, 2010) - Fish & Richardson won a major victory this week for Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA when a jury in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California completely rejected claims of patent infringement made by Baxter Healthcare Corporation and DEKA Products, Ltd against the Liberty Peritoneal Dialysis (PD) Cycler designed and produced by its wholly owned subsidiary, Fresenius Medical Care Holdings, Inc. dba Fresenius Medical Care North America. The patents, 5,421,823 and 6,814,547, asserted by Baxter and DEKA related to PD cycler pump design.
Baxter had claimed that Fresenius Medical Care's Liberty PD machine infringed a Baxter and a DEKA patent, which both involve the design of the pump that fills and drains PD solution from patients. The DEKA patent is most closely related to Baxter's Home Choice PD cycler that was originally developed by DEKA in the late 1980s. Fresenius Medical Care demonstrated that the Liberty Cycler utilizes mechanical means to operate the pump that fills and drains patients and in no way was a copy of Baxter's Home Choice cycler.
The jury returned a unanimous verdict on July 28 of no infringement on every count after deliberating less than a day in Oakland, California following a nearly four week trial. This verdict confirms Fresenius Medical Care's long-held view that it did not infringe any of the patents in suit. Baxter had been seeking monetary damages and injunctive relief.
"We are gratified that the jury has sided with Fresenius Medical Care in its defense of its Liberty Cycler against charges of patent infringement. We knew all along that these claims were baseless and without merit," said Juanita Brooks, Fish & Richardson principal and lead trial counsel on the case. "This is a victory not only for Fresenius Medical Care, but for the thousands of individuals undergoing dialysis because of chronic kidney failure who will continue to have access to Fresenius Medical Care's unparalleled track record of safety and performance for its services, equipment and supplies."
Lead counsel Juanita Brooks was assisted on the case by Fish & Richardson principals Michael Florey and Tom Melsheimer.
This jury verdict comes on the heels of another big win for Fresenius Medical Care related to other pending litigation with Baxter. On July 20, 2010, the Patent Office's Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences dismissed Baxter's request for a rehearing of the appeal of the reexamination decision invalidating the claims of the sole surviving patent, 5,247,434, in litigation over Baxter's patents on hemodialysis (HD) machines with touch screens. Therefore, the final outcome of the Patent Office reexamination proceeding is that the '434 patent claims in suit are unpatentable and subject to cancellation. Two other patents (5,744,027 and 6,284,131) in the 2006 HD case were previously found invalid by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and in parallel reexamination proceedings. Baxter may file further appeals on the '434 patent. This case and the reexam proceedings were also handled by Fish & Richardson.
Fresenius Medical Care is the world's largest integrated provider of products and services for individuals undergoing dialysis because of chronic kidney failure, a condition that affects more than 1,500,000 individuals worldwide. Through its network of 2,209 dialysis clinics in North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and Africa, Fresenius Medical Care provides dialysis treatment to 171,687 patients around the globe. Fresenius Medical Care is also the world's leading provider of dialysis products such as hemodialysis machines, dialyzers and related disposable products. Fresenius Medical Care is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (FME, FME3) and the New York Stock Exchange (FMS, FMS/P). For more information about Fresenius Medical Care visit the Company's website at www.fmc-ag.com.
Fish & Richardson is a leading global law firm with 400 attorneys and technology specialists practicing intellectual property strategy and counseling, intellectual property litigation, and business litigation. Fish does cutting-edge legal work for innovative clients who value their intellectual property. The firm was recently named top patent prosecution firm (Managing Intellectual Property, February 2010), was honored as an IP Firm of the Year (Law360, January 2010), and named a finalist for top IP litigation department of the year (American Lawyer, January 2010). Fish handles more patent litigation than any other law firm (IP Law & Business, September 2009), is the number one IP firm for America's biggest companies (Corporate Counsel, September 2009), and was named the number one firm in the world for PCT filings (Managing Intellectual Property, October 2009). The firm also handled two of the top ten most important IP cases of 2009 (Managing Intellectual Property, January 2010). For more information, visit http://www.fr.com.
Contact Information:
Contact:
Amy Blumenthal
Blumenthal & Associates
617-879-1511
amyb@blumenthalpr.com
Kelly Largey
Fish & Richardson
800-818-5070
largey@fr.com