MMRGlobal IP infringement lawsuits, allegations continue

Personal Health Record (PHR) patent holder and penny-stock company MMRGlobal [TA 10 Feb] continues to keep law firms in the US, Australia and now Singapore very busy with various complaints of patent infringement, demanding monetary damages, a permanent injunction and presumably, a lucrative licensing deal. Last week, MMRG filed in US District Court, Central District of California against health giant WebMD for their online PHR, claiming that from meetings dating back to 2007, WebMD incorporated “features and functionality that are the subject of MMR’s patents”. Today’s MMRG press release now highlights the Singapore Ministry of Health (with associated health agencies)which MMRG alleges uses PHR vendors which violate various patents–which just happen to be owned by MMRG in Singapore.  The Singapore Government’s alleged violations were ‘discovered’ as a result of the investigation of neighbor Australia’s Nehta’s alleged patent infringements. In the same press release, MMRG claims that Nehta’s and their attorneys have spoken; MMRG has “suggested entering into an agreement to exchange documents to facilitate an informal resolution to this matter for the benefit of all parties” (no confirmation by Nehta on either so far).  Now both Singapore and Australia are not in the courts yet; in fact, MMRG is openly inviting Nehta to a meeting at the 2013 HIMSS Conference starting 3 March in New Orleans to resolve this. (This Editor wonders whether Nehta will take them up on the offer.) Certainly MMRG’s aggressive tactics of lawsuit and serving notice by press release in defending their patent portfolio is unusual in the health tech area.

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Comments

  1. JShores

    Even for those that believe this is all a PR stunt to drum up interest and familiarity of MMRGlobal (a more than reasonable suspicion), you have got to recognize the professional (and legal) consequences the parties involved are risking, and the most certain result of those consequences if the claims are found to be without merit. 1- A reputable, credible law firm, on contingent. 2-representing a client firm that publically alleges governmental agencies of sovereign nations are infringing on their IP. They (both the law firm and the company) have either got to be crazy, without concern for assured loss of credibility/reputation/future business that would result; or they have a damn good case.

    • Donna Cusano

      @JShores: Has MMRGlobal won any of these lawsuits, or had a settlement with a major PHR developer (or in fact successfully defended any patent in their PHR/biotech portfolio). to date? The fact that the company has patents is less important than if they are defensible, given that a patent can be overbroad.

    • JShores writes:

      “They (both the law firm and the company) have either got to be crazy, without concern for assured loss of credibility/reputation/future business that would result; or they have a damn good case.”

      Another plausible, non-exclusive and increasingly believed explanation is that the US patent system is SNAFU.

  2. JShores

    They just started the patent infringement litigation actions (filing claims, not just letters). So the answer to your question, the outcome of present cases is determining factor. However, they have license agreements in effect on their IP currently both in HIT and Bio. Read: effective utilization and acceptance by agreement for use of MMRGlobal’s IP. Most people are not even aware that MMR has a current agreement with Celgene for use of MMRGlobal bio property in support of getting Revlimid FDA approved for the treatment of follicular lymphoma http://www.secinfo.com/d12WKa.q5p.d.htm#1stPage . When they took over Favrille, it was a treasure trove of B-Cell and CD20 data from the extensive work Favrille did in Follicular lymphoma / NHL. HIT IP, evidence of it being effective? Here is their filed licensing agreement with 4Medica as example: http://biz.yahoo.com/e/121210/mmrf8-k.html another example is recent agreement with HealthHoldings Group: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1285701/000113626112000653/0001136261-12-000653-index.htm Bottom line: the patents are legit, created by and used for MMR’s own products (mymedicalrecords.com and MMRpro), and there is history of that IP being licensed by other companies.