Aerocrine has reported that its patent infringement cases in the US and Europe against Apieron, Menlo Park, USA will be stayed as a result of Apieron filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
Following Apieron’s 2008 launch of Insight exhaled NO device in the US, Aerocrine filed complaints against Apieron for infringing three US patents. Apieron subsequently filed a counterclaim in that case, asserting that Aerocrine infringes two patents that Apieron purchased in 2004.
Apieron also filed a complaint against Aerocrine in Germany in July 2009 for alleged infringement of the German counterpart to one of the US patents. In a 2003 license and settlement agreement, however, Aerocrine settled a dispute about the same patents asserted by Apieron with the previous owners of these patents.
Apieron has filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California on March 30. As a result, Aerocrine’s organization may now fully focus on commercial and scientific development in the US.
Aerocrine has applied for and received numerous patents that protect its inventions for monitoring airway inflammation by measuring exhaled NO.
Paul de Potocki, CEO of Aerocrine, said: “Patents constitute an important prerequisite for companies such as ours to make the long term and pioneering investments in product and market development required to bring innovations to the benefit of patients. While we favor business resolutions to matters related to patent disputes, we will continue to forcefully defend our company’s intellectual property.”