JENA, Germany, Aug. 7 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Occlutech GmbH, the leading European manufacturer of cardiac occlusion devices, today announced that it has appealed the first instance court decision that was announced on August 1st 2007 by the district court in Dusseldorf. The Occlutech appeal is motivated by the first instance court decision seemingly not considering all relevant facts and arguments brought forth by Occlutech. The court decision appears to be based on an unintended broad interpretation of the AGA patent that is not compatible with scientific facts, laws of physics and prior art.
Occlutech is confident that when the next court instance, the provincial high court and court of appeal in Dusseldorf, investigates this matter, a more thorough consideration of the hard facts from the areas of Material Science and Intellectual Property Legislation will work in favour of the company and the earlier decision will be revoked.
Occlutech expects this positive outcome in 18 months from now and intends to continue to serve existing and new customers both in Germany and Internationally with its range of PFO and ASD occluders as well as several new products currently being developed.
Occlutech’s CEO Robert Moszner says; "The Occlutech occluders are new and innovative and are protected by a strong Intellectual Property position. In addition to a high likelihood of the recent court decision being revoked in the appeal process, we see a substantial chance that the AGA patent will be invalidated as a result of AGA’s own actions and argumentation in court."
Further he states; "AGA’s press communication contains a lot of hot air and we are confident that facts and state-of-the-art science will prove us right."
Occlutech has announced that it will initiate invalidation proceedings against AGA’s only awarded European patent. Most of the broader claims now interpreted into the patents by AGA Medical were not accepted by the reviewers of the European Patent Office in the original patent approval process due to the existence of prior art. This creates a significant and justified basis for Occlutech to file for invalidation.
Occlusion devices are used to treat structural heart disease, including structural heart defects and abnormalities, such as Atrial Septal Defects (ASD), or Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO), in a minimally invasive, non-surgical way. The market for these devices, and the PFO occluders in particular, are expected to expand significantly over the next few years.
