BAD HOMBURG, Germany (Thomson Financial) - Fresenius Medical Care AG. said that it will appeal a U.S. district court decision in favour of its U.S. rival Baxter International over patents linked to FMC's dialysis machine in the United States, saying the patents invoked by the court had been declared invalid by the U.S. patent office. The court for the Northern District of California on April 4 ruled that FMC has to pay royalties to Baxter on FMC's 2008K dialysis machine for units sold between November 2007 through the end of 2008 and that FMC is banned from selling the product from 2009, FMC spokesman Joachim Weith said. FMC will appeal the ruling and said it expects it to be overturned because the patents held by Baxter, which covered the user interface software for the machine's touch screen, had been declared invalid by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. FMC has already developed an alternative software for the touch screen, in case the district court decision is upheld, which will allow FMC to continue selling the 2008K machine in the United States in 2009, Weith said. 2008K is FMC's best-selling dialysis machine in the US, with more than 15,000 units sold in 2007, the company's financial statements show. ludwig.burger@thomson.com lb/ejp COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2008. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News.
