Comments
Domestic medical devices maker Poly Medicure has won a patent battle against German major B. Braun Melsungen on IV catheters.
The European Patent Office has ruled in favour of Poly Medicure revoked B Braun’s patent on IV catheters. This opens the European market for the Indian company.
B. Braun had claimed that the intravenous catheters sold by Poly Medicure were protected by patents. So far, this is the third instance of B. Braun’s patents protecting their IV catheter being revoked.
Rishi Baid, Executive Director, Poly Medicure told BusinessLine that, “B Braun would use undue broadening of the patent, it means that they would claim much more than the patent covers.” When contacted, B. Braun refused to comment on the litigation.
When a physician applies such a catheter to a patient, a needle guard automatically protrudes over the tip when the needle is withdrawn from the arm. This protects the doctor and nursing staff. Conventional catheters lack such a needle guard.
“Poly Medicure also sells intravenous safety catheters, but their needle protection is somewhat different. In May, the eight-year patent dispute between the two medical device manufacturers ended, as the European Patent Office (EPO) finally also rejected the last of the three patents. Thus, B. Braun has ultimately lost all three patents, and Poly Medicure can freely operate in the European market. In addition to Germany, the dispute also concerned the Netherlands, Spain and Italy,” said Himanshu Baid, Managing Director, Poly Medicure.
The patent dispute between the two companies began at the Medica 2009 trade fair. At that time, B. Braun filed a provisional injunction against Poly Medicure against the patent EP 1911486, thus dispensing with their measurements.
However, the injunction was revoked in February 2010 by the Regional Court of Appeals (District Court) Düsseldorf (District Court of Appeals), and in the second instance by the Oberlandesgericht (Higher Regional Court, Düsseldorf).
In parallel opposition proceedings, the European Patent Office (EPO) completely annulled the patent in September 2014.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.