A Medical Device Daily

Smith & Nephew's (S&N; London) Advanced Wound Management division reported that the UK Court of Appeal has ruled as invalid all claims asserted against S&N of the patent EP 0 626 720 that is licensed to Kinetic Concepts (KCI; San Antonio). The preliminary injunction against S&N's Renasys-F NPWT system has been lifted, the company said.

S&N said that the Patents Court had ruled on May 1 that seven out of 10 claims asserted were invalid but that the remaining three had been infringed by the company's Renasys-F dressing. This decision was appealed and subsequently won by S&N with this court ruling.

"This favorable ruling for Smith & Nephew clears a major legal hurdle in the UK allowing us to offer our customers the breadth of NPWT products with proven clinical efficacy," said Robin Carlstein, senior VP of Advanced Wound Devices at S&N. "Clearly, we are pleased with the UK Court of Appeal's findings in this matter and look forward to servicing our customers with our Renasys-F NPWT products in a very important market for the company."

KCI also reported that the court determined that the KCI patent covering the use of foam dressing kits with Negative Pressure Wound Therapy (NPWT) systems is not valid.

"We are disappointed with this ruling and plan to appeal the decision to the House of Lords," said Stephen Seidel, KCI executive VP, chief administrative officer and general counsel. "This ruling is limited to the UK patent at issue and does not directly affect the other patents in KCI's portfolio or any other proceedings outside the UK."