Dive Brief:
- Resmed has claimed a “significant victory” after the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) sided with the company in a dispute with New York University.
- In a series of decisions, the PTAB agreed claims challenged by Resmed were unpatentable. The decisions invalidate claims that NYU argued were infringed by Resmed’s sleep apnea devices.
- Resmed asked the PTAB to review the validity of the patents as part of its response to NYU’s complaint.
Dive Insight:
NYU filed a complaint for patent infringement in June 2021. In the complaint, the university alleged that the AutoSet and AutoRamp features of Resmed’s AirSense 10 AutoSet flow generators infringe seven of its patents. AutoSet and AutoRamp are features that automatically adjust pressure. NYU sought monetary damages.
Resmed filed a motion to dismiss the patents on the grounds the claims are unpatentable. That motion was granted in part and denied in part, according to Resmed’s recent quarterly filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company also asked the court to dismiss the case based on NYU’s licensing of the patents to Fisher & Paykel, a company that Resmed settled with previously.
The legal case was put on hold in April in response to the PTAB’s decision to grant Resmed’s request to review the validity of certain claims in the patents. The PTAB granted the request one year ago “determining that there is a reasonable likelihood that we will prevail,” Resmed wrote in its quarterly report.
The PTAB decisions move Resmed closer to resolving the dispute with NYU. Resmed has other legal cases involving Cleveland Medical Devices running in parallel to the NYU patent dispute.