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

Company: ICU MEDICAL INC/DE
Filing Date: 2025-02-27
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 25
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esciences, Belmont and Intersurgical plc. 

Our ability to compete in this market will depend on our ability to continue to make technological advances to our products, thereby increasing customer efficiency, and our ability to provide product support and successful customer training aimed at improving clinical decision-making that ultimately enhances patient safety and focuses on demonstrable patient outcomes.

Patents

Many of our product lines rely on patent protection. We have obtained U.S. and foreign patents relating to certain of the technologies found in our products, and are pursuing additional patent applications. There is however, no single patent or group of patents that we own that we believe is material in relation to our business as a whole. 

Our success will depend in part on our ability to obtain, maintain and enforce patent protection for our products and to operate without infringing on the proprietary rights of third parties. While we have obtained certain patents and applied for additional U.S. and foreign patents covering certain of our products, there is no assurance that the scope of any patent protection will prevent competitors from introducing similar or competing devices or that any of our patents will be held valid if subsequently challenged. We can also lose patent protection through expiration. The inability to obtain effective patent protection or the loss of patent protection on a specific product line could adversely affect our ability to exclude other companies from producing effective competitive products. The loss of a significant portion of our patent portfolio could have an adverse impact on our financial results. 

The fact that a patent is issued to us does not eliminate the possibility that patents owned by others may contain claims that are infringed by our products.

There has been substantial litigation regarding patent and other intellectual property rights in the medical device industry. Litigation, which would result in substantial cost to us and diversion of our resources, may be necessary to defend us against claimed infringement of the rights of others and to determine the scope and validity of the proprietary rights of others. Adverse determinations in such litigation could subject us to significant liabilities to third parties or could require us to seek licenses from third parties and could prevent us from manufacturing, selling or using our products, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business. In addition, we have initiated litigation, and may continue to initiate litigation in 

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the future, to enforce our intellectual property rights against those we believe to be infringing on our patents.  Such litigation could result in substantial cost and diversion of resources.

Seasonality/Quarterly Results

Our business is not significantly impacted by seasonal aspects. We can, however