Fisher & Paykel Healthcare extends patent fight with rival to Australia

Last month, F&P Healthcare won a patent case against ResMed in the UK. Picture / Dean Purcell

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare has extended its patent fight with ResMed to Australia, seeking damages and injunctions to halt sales of its rival's products that it alleges infringed four patents.

The proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia against ResMed and several related companies seek "a range of remedies, including damages and injunctions preventing the manufacture and sale of these products by ResMed in Australia," the Auckland-based company said.

Last month, F&P Healthcare won a patent case against ResMed in the UK in the ongoing intellectual property dispute for its face and Nasal masks across various jurisdictions.

The High Court of Justice, Chancery Division, Patents Court ruled a disputed ResMed patent was invalid, with the New Zealand manufacturer entitled to recover its legal costs with the amount yet to be determined by the court.

In 2016, F&P Healthcare claimed that three of ResMed's European patents were invalid in the UK and should be revoked. ResMed counterclaimed for infringement but did eventually revoke two of the patents, leaving only one before the court.

ResMed argued that patent EP 2 708 258 B1 was infringed by two of F&P Healthcare's masks used for obstructive sleep apnea therapy. Had the patent been valid it would have been infringed.

In October F&P Healthcare said that the Regional Court in Munich had ruled ResMed did not infringe its patents on a German utility model patent. A further case is before the same court regarding another patent with a ruling expected in 2018, pending proceedings filed by F&P Healthcare in the European Patent Office.

Last month, the company posted a 4 per cent gain in first-half profit to $81.3 million and said the increase would have been higher if not for $12.2m of patent litigation costs. Those costs were up from $2.4m a year earlier. It said annual profit would be between $185m and $190m, a range that it reiterated today.