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Paris Court of Appeal - MACO PHARMA v/ ASAHI KASEI MEDICAL CO LTD


Decision date

2006-02-22

Decision No.

RG 03/17607

Nature

Patent

Country

France

Jurisdiction

Cour d’Appel de Paris

Parties

MACO PHARMA c/ ASAHI KASEI MEDICAL CO LTD



The company MACO PHARMA was represented by Arnaud Casalonga, Attorney at Law.

The owner of a European patent covering a method for separating blood into blood components and a blood components separator unit, launched an infringement action against the company MACO PHARMA.

The Court of First Instance invalidated the patent’s claims for lack of inventive step and the Paris Court of Appeal confirmed the first instance’s decision in its entirety.

In light of a prior patent and scientific publication, the Court of Appeal considered that the person skilled in the art was induced to use the methods covered by the patent in order to avoid the risks of contamination, which represented the main concern in case of blood components separation.

Therefore, the patent infringement action launched against MACO PHARMA has been definetly and entirely rejected.