LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwired - Dec 16, 2013) - MMRGlobal, Inc. (OTCQB: MMRF), through its wholly owned subsidiary MyMedicalRecords, Inc. (collectively, "MMR"), a leading provider of Personal Health Records ("PHRs"), MyEsafeDepositBox storage solutions and electronic document management and imaging systems for healthcare professionals, today announced that it filed a second complaint for patent infringement against Walgreen Co. on December 13, 2013 in the United States District Court Central District of California, Case No. 2:13-cv-9214 relating to MMR's U.S. Patent No. 8,498,883 (the "883 Patent"). Walgreens had previously stipulated to amend MMR's existing January 29, 2013 complaint in which MMR alleged infringement of its U.S. Patent No. 8,301,466 (the "466 Patent"), Case No. 2:13-cv-13-00631. At the time the original complaint was filed, the United States Patent and Trademark Office had not yet issued the '883 Patent. On Monday, December 9th, the Court issued an order consolidating Markman hearings in all pending MMR cases including Walgreen Co., Quest Diagnostics, Jardogs, LLC consolidated with Allscripts, and WebMD Health Corp. As part of the order, the Court ordered all parties to appear on January 13, 2014 to discuss a consolidated Markman hearing schedule pertaining to both the '466 Patent and the '883 Patent.
MMR filed the second complaint against Walgreens to ensure that MMR's claims regarding Walgreens' infringement of the '883 Patent would be timely resolved and that the Markman ruling regarding the '883 Patent would apply to Walgreens as well. Cases against Allscripts and Quest Diagnostics already include both the '466 and '883 Patents.
MMR also called attention to a Walgreens court filing of November 26, 2013 wherein the parties stated the following, "The parties met on November 19th, 2013 in Deerfield Illinois. They agreed to schedule a second conference call one week later on November 26th, 2013. That meeting was rescheduled to December 3, 2013." The filing continued stating, "The parties desire to focus on a potential resolution over the next week and a half instead of focusing on motion practice and incurring the costs of attorney's fees associated therewith." MMR has confirmed the meeting of December 3rd did occur and attempts to resolve the matter are ongoing. Notwithstanding the filing of the most current complaint, in view of the recent court order consolidating the January 13, 2014 Markman hearing against five defendants in MMR's patent infringement complaints, MMR underlines the fact that the two companies are still working toward a settlement.
The '883 Patent, entitled "Method for Providing a User with a Service for Accessing and Collecting Prescriptions," is directed toward online access and management of prescriptions in retail pharmacies, mass merchandisers, hospitals and others with pharmacies inside. The patent covers how consumers, patients, physicians and other healthcare professionals send prescriptions to the pharmacy, access prescriptions from a pharmacy, schedule prescription refills, send reminders regarding prescription refills including by text or email, and identify adverse drug interactions by analyzing prescription medications. Based on trends offering consumers the ability to manage prescriptions online, the Company believes this "Prescription Management" patent to be extremely relevant to its business of selling its products and services and/or licensing its patented intellectual property to healthcare professionals and others including retail pharmacies.
MMR is the owner of eight issued patents covering innovations regarding PHRs and the electronic exchange of medical records, applications involving inventions pertaining to Personal Health Records, Patient Portals and other Electronic Health Record systems. The patents include U.S. Patent Nos. 8,117,045, 8,117,646, 8,121,855, 8,301,466, 8,321,240, 8,352,287, 8,352,288, and 8,498,883. The Company also has recently received Notices of Allowance for two additional patents from the United States Patent and Trademark Office. These are for Patent Application Serial No. 13/736,339, entitled "Method and System for Providing Online Records," and Serial No. 13/714,694, entitled "Method for Providing a User with a Web-based Service for Accessing and Collecting Health Records," both of which are awaiting issuance.
In addition to the United States, MMR currently has patents issued, pending and/or applied for in 11 other countries or regional authorities including Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, Mexico, Japan, Canada, Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Israel and Europe.
About MMRGlobal
MMRGlobal, Inc., through its wholly-owned operating subsidiary, MyMedicalRecords, Inc., provides secure and easy-to-use online Personal Health Records ("PHRs") and electronic safe deposit box storage solutions, serving consumers, healthcare professionals, employers, insurance companies, financial institutions, retail pharmacies, and professional organizations and affinity groups. The MyMedicalRecords PHR enables individuals and families to access their medical records and other important documents, such as birth certificates, passports, insurance policies and wills, anytime from anywhere using the Internet. MyMedicalRecords is built on proprietary, patented technologies to allow documents, images and voicemail messages to be transmitted and stored in the system using a variety of methods, including fax, phone, or file upload without relying on any specific electronic medical record platform to populate a user's account. The Company's professional offering, MMRPro, is designed to give physicians' offices an easy and cost-effective solution to digitizing paper-based medical records and sharing them with patients through an integrated patient portal. Through its merger with Favrille, Inc. in January 2009, the Company acquired intellectual property biotech assets that include anti-CD20 antibodies and data and samples from its FavId™/Specifid™ vaccine clinical trials for the treatment of B-Cell Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. To learn more about MMRGlobal, Inc. visit www.mmrglobal.com. View demos and video tutorials of the Company's products and services at www.mmrtheater.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
All statements in this press release that are not strictly historical in nature, including, without limitation, intellectual property enforcement actions, infringement claims or litigation, intellectual property licenses, and future performance, management's expectations, beliefs, intentions, estimates or projections, constitute "forward-looking statements." Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause MMR's actual results to be materially different from historical results or from any results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Some can be identified by the use of words (and their derivations) such as "need," "possibility," "potential," "intend," "offer," "development," "if," "negotiate," "when," "begun," "believe," "achieve," "will," "estimate," "expect," "maintain," "plan," and "continue," or the negative of these words. Actual outcomes and results of operations and the timing of selected events may differ materially from the results predicted, and any reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. Such statements are necessarily based on assumptions and estimates and are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including those relating to the possible invalidity of the underlying assumptions and estimates and possible changes or developments in economic, business, industry, market, legal and regulatory circumstances and conditions and actions taken or omitted to be taken by third parties, including customers, suppliers, business partners, potential licensees, competitors and legislative, judicial and other governmental authorities and officials. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to: unexpected outcomes with respect to intellectual property enforcement actions, claims of intellectual property infringement and general intellectual property litigation; our ability to maintain, develop, monetize and protect our patent portfolio for both MMR's health IT and biotechnology intellectual property assets in the U.S. and internationally; the timing of milestone payments in connection with licensing our intellectual property; our ability to establish and maintain strategic relationships; changes in our relationships with our licensees; the risk MMR's products are not adopted or viewed favorably by the healthcare community and consumer retail market; business prospects, results of operations or financial condition; risks related to the current uncertainty and instability in financial and lending markets, including global economic uncertainties; the timing and volume of sales and installations; the length of sales cycles and the installation process; the market's acceptance of new product and service introductions; competitive product offerings and promotions; changes in government laws and regulations including the 2009 HITECH Act and changes in Meaningful Use and the 2010 Affordable Care Act; future changes in tax legislation and initiatives in the healthcare industry; undetected errors in our products; the possibility of interruption at our data centers; risks related to third party vendors; risks related to obtaining and integrating third-party licensed technology; risks related to a security breach by third parties; risks associated with recruitment and retention of key personnel; other litigation matters; uncertainties associated with doing business internationally across borders and territories; and additional risks discussed in MMR's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. MMR is providing this information as of the date of this release and, except as required by applicable law, does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.