Boston, MA 08/26/2014 (wallstreetpr) – The General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) along with Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:HRC) announced that the two have successfully and mutually resolved patent infringement lawsuit involving Hill-Rom’s hand hygiene technology.
About the Lawsuit and Settlement
The lawsuit was filed against General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) for making illegal use of Hill-Rom’s aforementioned technology. Hill-Rom agreed that its hand hygiene technology patents shall now be licensed to GE only and in return, GE will not contest that the patents are enforceable and valid.
Statement from the Leaders
The Senior Vice President and President North America of Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:HRC), Alton Shader said that their company was glad to reach the settlement. Mr. Shader said, “The settlement recognizes the value of the innovation at the heart of the Hill-Rom® Hand Hygiene Solution.”
He further explained that protection of company’s intellectual property was of paramount importance for the process of product development that enables one to develop new technologies, thereby allowing enhanced results for patients as well as care-givers.
About the Disputed Intellectual Property
The entire case involves Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:HRC)’s hand hygiene technology. The company’s Hand Hygiene Compliance Solution system makes use of badge locating technology that in turn allows addressing health care-acquired infections through continuous and automatic monitoring of hand-hygiene station use. It is important to note that health care-acquired infections lead to approximately 75,000 deaths and even more than that in the U.S. alone.
Alerts are also given to healthcare providers in order to understand the repercussions of missed hand-hygiene opportunities. After being installed, this Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:HRC)’s hand hygiene technology automatically mechanizes the clinical environment in order to drive safety as well as productivity, which in turn, is very useful for the patients. This technology can be leveraged beyond the boundaries of hygiene monitoring for various other uses, which includes asset tracking, staff locating, and environmental monitoring along with various other process automation applications.
