ICU Medical Sues 2 Firms for Patent Infringement

ICU Medical Inc. in Irvine said Monday that it has filed a patent infringement suit against Baxter Healthcare Corp. and Becton Dickinson & Co. over the use of certain parts of a needlelike product.

In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana last week, ICU Medical charged that two medical-products firms infringed on its patent for a piggyback connector, a component in ICU’s Click Lock system. The entire device provides protection from needle pricks during intravenous therapy.

Baxter, based in Deerfield, Ill., markets a product under the Interlink trademark that also protects health workers from needle pricks.

The Baxter device is not used to feed fluids to a patient but for functions such as extracting medicine from a vial or connecting two tubes, company spokesman Geoffrey Fenton said.

“We have just received the complaint and are reviewing it now,� he said.

Becton Dickinson, based in Franklin Lakes, N.J., markets Needle Lock, another protective product. A company spokesman could not be reached for comment.

ICU is seeking a preliminary injunction to stop the two companies from marketing the devices.

George Lopez, the company’s chief executive, said in a statement that the two companies are taking market share “that otherwise might belong to ICU.� He estimated that Baxter and Becton Dickinson collected $35 million in sales from the Interlink and Needle Lock products in 1992.