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Paris First Instance Court - IMPLANTICA MARKETING LTD v/ MYOPOWERS MEDICAL TECHNOLOGIES FRANCE


Decision date

2019-07-25

Nature

Patent

Country

France

Jurisdiction

Paris First Instance Court

Parties

IMPLANTICA MARKETING LTD v/ MYOPOWERS MEDICAL TECHNOLOGIES FRANCE



IMPLANTICA MARKETING LTD was represented by Arnaud CASALONGA Attorney at Law, assisted by Olivier DELPRAT French and European Patent Attorney.

This company holds a European patent EP1,284,691 designating France for a device to treat urinary incontinence for men and women.

The patentee was informed that MYOPOWERS MEDICAL TECHNOLOGIES FRANCE was developing a medical device not yet marketed called ARTUS reproducing a number of claims from the French part of the EP1 284 691 patent.

In particular, IMPLANTICA MARKETING LTD had a counterfeit seizure carried out by bailiff on 14 May 2019 at the premises of MYOPOWERS MEDICAL TECHNOLOGIES FRANCE after having been authorised to do so by an order on request issued on 6 May 2019 by the President of the Paris High Court.

Proceedings on the merits for infringement are currently pending.

MYOPOWERS MEDICAL TECHNOLOGIES FRANCE initiated a summary retraction before the President of the Paris High Court in June 2019 to order the sealing of four photographs and an extract from a plan annexed to the counterfeit seizure report with the prohibition to use them because of their confidentiality.

The judge dismissing the applications for interim measures first of all by reiterating the conditions of Article L 151-1 of the French Commercial Code on business confidentiality and specifying that these conditions are cumulative.

With regard to the extract of the plan corresponding to the alleged infringement mechanism, the court noted that the confidential parts of the plan as a whole had already been purged by the bailiff during the seizure operations at the request and with the agreement of the local representative of MYOPOWERS MEDICAL TECHNOLOGIES FRANCE.

It is also noted that the plan was fixed to the wall of the room in which the seizure operations took place without any measures to keep it secret, such as a locked locker.

The judge also rejects the request for sequestration of the photographs that correspond to the alleged infringement mechanism as described by the bailiff during his on-site operations.

The information they contain shows nothing more than a motor, a gearbox, an electronic board and batteries, which are standard products acquired from suppliers and freely available on the market.

MYOPOWERS MEDICAL TECHNOLOGIES FRANCE is therefore dismissed from all its claims and ordered to pay IMPLANTICA MARKETING LTD the sum of €12,000 under Article 700 of the Code of Civil Procedure.

No appeal has been lodged against the decision.