The Company • News • Orthocaps / Align Technology Patent Dispute
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13.01.2012Orthocaps / Align Technology Patent Dispute
On December 21, 2011, the American company Align Technology launched a lawsuit before the Landgericht Düsseldorf* against Ortho Caps GmbH related to an alleged patent infringement. Ortho Caps takes the following position:
The patents in dispute presented by Align Technology, allegedly infringed by Ortho Caps, are not legally valid, at any event in relation to the claims referred to; in other words, they were obtained unfairly.
Align Technology already initiated legal actions in the past against rivals in the United States related to patents, the content of which could be considered part of the same family of patents, like the four European patents in dispute that are the subject of Align’s claim against Ortho Caps. These lawsuits were unsuccessful. A US appeal court noted in 2006 that some of the main claims of two of Align’s US patents (claims 1, 2, 3 and 7 of US patent 6,554,611 and claims 10 and 17 of US patent 6,398,548), the content of which essentially corresponded to that of a patent in dispute used by Align against Ortho Caps, were not patentable.
Furthermore, Align Technology is and remains in possession of related documents directly associated with the legal validity of the European patents, but the European Patent Office, as the control body, has not had access to them.
For these reasons, Ortho Caps intends to defend itself vigorously against the accusations and to specifically contest the legality of the patents in dispute presented by Align Technology before the courts. Ortho Caps in fact has documents that were submitted in the 2006 proceedings that explain the non-patentable nature of the claims.
Furthermore, Ortho Caps is in possession of documents submitted by another American rival in the framework of US proceedings that are currently pending related to the legal validity of other US patents owned by Align Technology. These US patents belong to the same family as the European patents.
Next week, Ortho Caps will initiate proceedings against one of the patents in dispute with the European Patent Office, and other proceedings or legal actions to set aside will be initiated in upcoming weeks, if necessary.
Mr. Wajeeh Khan, Managing Director of Ortho Caps GMBH, has stated that he has every reason to believe that the outcome of these proceedings will be favorable to Ortho Caps.
*[N.B. German regional court that is similar to a US County Court]