Siemens Healthineers Hit by Patent Injunction on Mammography System as Diagnostics Woes Persist

Unified Patent Court orders Siemens Healthineers to stop selling MAMMOMAT B.brilliant in three countries after Hologic patent win; shares near 52-week low amid diagnostics slump.

The Unified Patent Court has handed Siemens Healthineers a costly legal defeat, ordering it to halt sales of its MAMMOMAT B.brilliant mammography system in Germany, France and the Netherlands. The ruling, issued on 10 June 2026 by the Düsseldorf local chamber, forces the medical technology group to recall and destroy all affected devices after finding that the system infringes a Hologic patent covering the “Flying Focal Spot” technology used in breast tomosynthesis.

The European patent EP 2 352 431 B1 protects a method that moves the focal spot within the X?ray tube opposite to the tube’s motion during an exposure. Siemens contested both the infringement and the validity of the patent, but the court dismissed its counterclaims. The injunction is immediate and far?reaching: Siemens may no longer manufacture, offer, sell, deploy or import the devices in the three countries, and it must hand over all sales documentation dating back to August 2018 to determine retrospective and future damages, the exact amount of which the court has yet to set.

The patent blow lands at a moment when Siemens Healthineers is already wrestling with a deepening crisis in its diagnostics segment. Revenues in that division slid 6.5% to €985 million in the latest quarter, prompting management to slash its full?year revenue growth forecast for 2026 to between 4.5% and 5%. The stock closed at €34.61 on the day of the ruling, just 5% above the 52?week low of €32.84 and some 30% below the 12?month high of €49.86. Year to date the shares have lost 22%, and they trade nearly 17% below their 200?day moving average with a relative strength index of 47.6 — a technical picture that suggests neither oversold desperation nor convincing momentum.

Underlying the share price malaise is the widening gap between Siemens Healthineers’ strongest businesses and its weakest link. Imaging and precision therapy are said to be performing on track, supported by recent partnerships — a global collaboration with Cercare Medical for cone?beam CT perfusion in stroke care announced in late May, and a long?term research agreement to equip the new University Heart and Vascular Centre at the UKE in Hamburg. These deals underscore the company’s strategic positioning in imaging, interventional medicine and clinical networking, yet the market remains fixated on the diagnostics drag. Investors typically pay a premium for predictability in medtech; a recurring weak division erodes that premium, and the current €39?billion market capitalisation does not fully reflect the drag.

The structural fix for that imbalance is now taking shape. In April, parent Siemens AG confirmed plans for a direct spin?off of Siemens Healthineers shares, with a shareholder vote scheduled for February 2027. The move is designed to sharpen the subsidiary’s capital?market profile and increase its strategic autonomy, but in the near term it prolongs uncertainty over ownership structure and valuation benchmarks. Meanwhile, a €230?million share buyback launched on 1 June is earmarked primarily for employee compensation rather than a conventional return of capital, offering little direct support to the share price.

Siemens Healthineers has not yet indicated whether it will appeal the patent ruling. What is clear is that the company now faces a three?front campaign: a legal setback in imaging, a structural overhaul in diagnostics — with a possible separate listing of that unit rumoured to be under review — and the persistent challenge of proving to shareholders that its core strengths can eventually outweigh the current headwinds.