A Medical Device Daily

Occlutech (Jena, Germany) reported that it had defeated a request for insolvency, launched at the Amtsgericht Gera in Germany by its U.S. competitor AGA Medical (AGA, Plymouth, Minnesota) last month (Medical Device Daily, Feb. 2, 2009).

The request by AGA was based on wrongful assumptions about Occlutech, and AGA reported that it had started the said request to recover damages. However, the court Amtsgericht Gera in Germany said that a proceeding regarding any damages has not yet been started.

"Occlutech intends to maintain a healthy business in vascular intervention based on excellent products for cardiac occlusion as well as coronary and peripheral intervention. We have developed a new range of innovative occluders for treating PFO and ASD in order not to violate the recent German patent ruling," said Tor Peters, who was appointed CEO in late January: "We expect to be on the market shortly with the new version."

Occlutech won against AGA Medical in the Patent Court in The Hague in October last year. AGA Medical appealed against that decision and the proceeding is pending (MDD, Oct. 31, 2008).

In Germany, AGA won patent infringement litigation before the appeal court in Dusseldorf. This decision has no relevance outside Germany though, Occlutech said.