Company: ICUI
Filing Date: 2025-02-27
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000883984-25-000007
Chunk: 145

Company: ICU MEDICAL INC/DE
Filing Date: 2025-02-27
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 145
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 is impossible to predict, particularly in light of the new presidential administration. Any significant reforms made to the healthcare system in the U.S., or in other jurisdictions, may have an adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

On December 13, 2021, Regulation No 2021/2282 on Health Technology Assessment (“HTA”) amending Directive 2011/24/EU, was adopted. While the Regulation entered into force in January 2022, it only began to apply from January 2025 onwards, with preparatory and implementation-related steps that took place in the interim. Once applicable, it will have a phased implementation depending on the concerned products. The Regulation intends to boost cooperation among EU member states in assessing health technologies, including certain high-risk medical devices, and provide the basis for cooperation at the EU level for joint clinical assessments in these areas. It will permit EU member states to use common HTA tools, methodologies, and procedures across the EU, working together in four main areas, including joint clinical assessment of the innovative health technologies with the highest potential impact for patients, joint scientific consultations whereby developers can seek advice from HTA authorities, identification of emerging health technologies to identify promising technologies early, and continuing voluntary cooperation in other areas. Individual EU member states will continue to be responsible for assessing non-clinical (e.g., economic, social, ethical) aspects of health technology, and making decisions on pricing and reimbursement. 

Our business could be materially and adversely affected if we fail to defend and enforce our patents or other proprietary rights, if our products are found to infringe patents or other proprietary rights owned by others or if the cost to protect our patents or other proprietary rights becomes excessive or as our patents expire.

We rely on a combination of patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, business methods, software and nondisclosure agreements to protect our proprietary intellectual property. Our efforts to protect our intellectual and proprietary rights may not be sufficient. Further, there is no assurance that patents pending will issue or that the protection from patents 

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which have issued or may issue in the future will be broad enough to prevent competitors from introducing similar devices, that such patents, if challenged, will be upheld by the courts or that we will be able to prove infringement and damages in litigation.

We generally have multiple patents covering various features of a product, and as each patent expires, the protection afforded by that patent is no longer available to us, even though protection of features that are covered by other unexpired patents may continue to