Update Patent Litigation

Medisoft vs Aerocrine follow-up

Medisoft is one of the leading suppliers of cardio respiratory instruments and heavily invests in new developments of such instruments, including FeNO devices for determination of endogenous nitric oxide in humans.

In 2008, Medisoft was sued by Aerocrine AB before the Düsseldorf Court for infringement of four (4) of Aerocrine’s European patents, EP-0606351,  EP-0724723 ,  EP-1439781 and EP-1545305.

The District court of Düsseldorf found that Medisoft did not infringe the latest patent EP-1545305 (“scrubber patent”). The three remaining patents were found to be infringed. Medisoft claimed invalidity of these three patents at the Federal Patent Court in Munich.

In February 2011, before the Federal Patent Court in Munich, Medisoft succeeded in invalidating all of Aerocrine’s patent claims having formed the basis for Aerocrine’s infringement action of EP-0724723 ( "mask patent" case). Aerocrine could upheld its patent only after substantial amendments to the patent claims, directed to a particular method for measurements of nasal nitrogen oxide. These amendments do not bar Medisoft from commercializing its FeNO devices.

In June 2011, Medisoft again succeeded as the Federal Patent Court in Munich declared the attacked patent claims of Aerocrine’s EP- 0606351 ("basic") patent null and void.

In April 2012, the Federal Patent Court in Munich will have to decide on the validity of EP-1439781t. Medisoft continues to vigorously defend its rights and is confident it will prevail in this case too.

Medisoft has however provisionally changed some features in the FeNO devices in order to comply with the judgements in Düsseldorf.

For more information, contact:
Emmanuel Malherbe, Managing Director of Medisoft Germany GmbH, Tel.: +32 (0)474 88 30 28