Poly Medicure wins patent battle against B. Braun melsungen in European market

The German pharmaceutical and medical technology group B. Braun melsungen has lost a patent dispute with the Indian competitor Polymedicure since 2009.

This involves intravenous safety catheters, which had protected B. Braun with several European patents.

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physician applies such a catheter to a patient, a needle guard automatically protrudes over the tip when the needle is withdrawn from the arm.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. Polymedicure 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 Polymedicure can freely use the European market. In addition to Germany, the dispute also concerned the Netherlands, Spain and Italy, informed Himanshu Baid, MD- Polymedicure.

The patent dispute between the two companies began at the Medica 2009 trade fair. At that time, B. Braun filed a provisional injunction against Polymedicure 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However, the injunction was revoked in February 2010 by the Regional Court of Appeals (District Court) Düsseldorf (District Court of Appeals 4b O 227/09) and in the second instance by the Oberl and esgericht (Higher Regional Court, Düsseldorf) (District Court I - 2 U 37/10) In parallel opposition proceedings, the European Patent Office (EPO) completely annulled the patent in September 2014. This led to a parallel discussion in Italy.

In addition, the Düsseldorf court had suspended the proceedings for the other two patents until their legal position had been clarified (Section 4b O 157/10).

The EPO had revoked EP 1604700 in 2014, and lastly, EP 1911487. Now only the publication of the decision of the regional court on the last patent has been published (line 4b O 115/13). At the same time, B. Braun had obtained an injunction in Spain and applied an interim injunction in the Netherlands.

-ANI