A Medical Device Daily

Kinetic Concepts (KCI; San Antonio) and Medela (Baar, Switzerland) have both filed appeals with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas in patent infringement litigation KCI brought against Medela and BlueSky Medical Group (Carlsbad, California).

The patents at issue are licensed by KCI from Wake Forest University (Winston-Salem, North Carolina) and relate to KCI's V.A.C. technology, used for the treatment of patients with serious, complex wounds. The trial court found the patents to be valid and enforceable, but not infringed, the companies reported.

KCI is appealing the portion of the decision that found the patents were not infringed, while Medela is appealing the portion of the decision that found the KCI patents valid and enforceable.

KCI said the U.S. Federal Circuit Court in Washington would hear its appeal but no schedule for the appeal process has been established.

Roman Kupper, CEO of Medela, said the company considers its appeal one step towards providing greater choice to patients and healthcare professionals in the negative pressure wound therapy market.

"We want to clarify the situation so we can continue our heritage of being a trusted, customer-focused manufacturer of high-quality, innovative and research-based products," Kupper said.

In August 2006 BlueSky reported that Federal Judge Royal Furgeson of the U.S. Western District of Texas had signed a judgment in its favor in its infringement dispute with KCI (Medical Device Daily, Aug. 31, 2006).

It said that the judgment upheld a jury verdict early that month that the use, manufacture and sale of BlueSky's Versatile 1 System, a negative-pressure wound therapy device, did not directly infringe on KCI's patents for a similar device. Additionally, BlueSky said it has been cleared of any willful, contributing or inducement of infringement on KCI's patent claims.

Last month KCI reported that the court denied all post-trial motions of the parties in the litigation (MDD, April 9, 2007).