ResMed, BMC (Beijing, China) and 3B Medical (Winter Haven, Florida) recently announced they have agreed on a global settlement of all litigation between the parties. BMC and 3B will be permitted to sell their existing products in exchange for royalty payments to ResMed, and ResMed will make a one-time settlement payment to 3B to close the Florida litigation between the two parties. The settlement did not include an admission of liability or wrongdoing by any party.
The five year agreement between the three companies resolves all pending litigation before the U.S. International Trade Commission, lawsuits pending in district court in Florida and California, foreign litigation in China and Germany, and validity challenges pending in various patent offices around the world.
"We are pleased to bring our litigation with BMC and 3B to a resolution and to have our intellectual property and patents validated through this settlement," said David Pendarvis, ResMed's Global General Counsel. "For 28 years, ResMed has stood strong in its commitment to innovate and develop products and solutions that exceed the needs of our HME customers and the patients we serve together. This agreement validates the important work we will continue doing for the patients and providers who count on us to provide the best products for treating the world's most serious respiratory conditions. And it allows us to avoid the distraction and ongoing expense of continued litigation."
"We are equally pleased to bring global litigation with ResMed to a resolution. The litigation was necessary to insure that the market for sleep disordered breathing products remained open to competition and validated 3B Medical's right to innovate and provide alternative solutions to the sleep disordered breathing marketplace," said Alex Lucio, Executive Vice President of 3B Medical.
"BMC continues to develop its own portfolio of intellectual property as one of the global manufacturers in the sleep disordered breathing market. We continue to fund research and development and bring new products to market. This agreement brings a very long battle with ResMed to a final conclusion and allows all of our companies to focus on developing great products to service the needs of our patients," said James Xu, General Manager of BMC Medical.
(Source: BMC Medical Co., Ltd.)
