Instradent/Neodent prevails against Nobel Biocare as key patent claims are invalidated by Patent Trial and Appeal Board in the USA
Andover, MA,--The Patent Trial and Appeal Board in Washington, DC USA has ruled in favor of Instradent USA (the US distributor for Neodent) and has invalidated patent claims covering Nobel Biocare's flagship dental implant, NobelActive®.
In 2015, Instradent challenged the validity of Nobel Biocare’s U.S. Patent No. 8,714,977 in response to legal action initiated by Nobel in 2014 in a District Court case and a subsequent ITC investigation, claiming patent infringement by the Neodent Drive CM implant. Instradent challenged the validity of all the claims asserted by Nobel in the ITC investigation. The panel of three administrative judges on the Patent Trial and Appeal Board has found that all of the challenged claims were unpatentable.
“Nobel’s attempt to claim originality and to discredit our products was wrong and misleading. Their claim was not about protecting something unique but instead a blatant effort to block us from offering customers high quality alternatives at very attractive prices. We are delighted with this outcome, which clears the way for enhanced implant designs and confirms Neodent’s reputation in the market”, commented Matthias Schupp, CEO of Neodent.
Neodent relies on a strong clinical track record that has been built up over 20 years. Its proven system has earned the trust of more than 30 000 clinicians, and the company has sold well over nine million implants worldwide. Now selling more than a million implants each year, Neodent is one of the world’s leading implant manufacturers. Like most implant systems, its products are supported by the company’s own clinical experience as well as clinical and scientific findings published by third parties in the public domain.