I've read the patent info, and agree with pingi's analysis, except that I'm not sure whether it definitely affects NROBE commercialisation. The patent in question will be only one of several patents linked to the Nrobe deal. The patent in question is one of the patents covering the Nrobe machine. Of course, Nrobe is already covered by several quite different patents for Xgel film.
I wonder if Bioprogress had fully expected the patent situation when it told us it was re-negoitating the Nrobe deal with FMC on 23/11/06. Afterall, this is only 5 days before the formal decision on the patent was taken (28/11/06). No doubt there were informal discussions with Bioprogress before this formal decision was taken. Thus, the new re-negoitated contract (when it appears) may not rely upon this specific Nrobe patent.