Puritan Secures Another Legal Victory Against Copan in Sweden
Guilford, ME — GUILFORD, Maine, Jan. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Puritan Medical Products—the world's most trusted manufacturer of swabs and specimen collection and transport devices —is proud to celebrate yet another affirmation of patent law, this time in Sweden. The Swedish patent lawsuit filed by Italian swab-maker Copan Italia S.p.A. hit a dead end earlier this month, with the Swedish Court of Appeals confirming that Puritan's flocked swabs do not infringe any claims of Copan's European Patent that supposedly protects the Italian company's core flocked swab technology.
Copan launched a patent offensive against Puritan distributor Svenska LABFAB in Sweden back in April 2019, after losing a competitive bid in Sweden. The Italian company announced the Swedish lawsuit during a trade show in the Netherlands, handing out flyers claiming "that Svenska LABFAB has committed a willful infringement of the patent covering COPAN's core flocked swab technology." By June 2020, however, the Swedish courts sided with LABFAB and handed Copan a resounding defeat. LABFAB successfully defeated the infringement claims and even earned legal fees for its efforts.
Later that year, in November 2020, Puritan similarly defeated the Italian Competitor. in a string of German lawsuits and appeals, also earning legal fees. Fast forward to 2022, and Copan suffered another defeat at the hands of the International Trade Commission (ITC) in Washington, D.C. In that case, Copan accused. rival Chinese swab makers of infringing its patents, only for the claims to be denied by an ITC judge. Copan has now lost six lawsuits in which it asserted flocked swab patent infringement.
“The Puritan team is proud that the ITC decision is another example where good-faith business practices rule the day in the court of law,” said Bob Shultz, President and CFO at Puritan. “In our life-saving industry, there is no place for baseless accusations, especially when so many people around the world rely on us to provide critical swabs. Looking ahead, Puritan will continue going about swab production the right way and ignoring potential distractions, innovating like we’ve continued to do for over a century.”
You can view the press release here
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