B Braun Melsungen, a Germany-based medical device manufacturer, and its US subsidiary B Braun Medical Inc (B Braun) have prevailed in Introcan Safety IV Catheter patent infringement suit against Japan's Terumo Corporation and its US subsidiary Terumo Medical Corporation.
The verdict was awarded by the US District Court for the District of Delaware, confirming the validity of an infringed claim of B Braun‘s 2007 patent (US Patent 7,264,613) for its Introcan Safety IV Catheter.
Introcan Safety IV Catheter is a passive, fully automatic safety device, designed to help protect against accidental needlestick injuries (NSIs).
B Braun sued Terumo in May 2009 for infringement of its Introcan Safety patent by selling Terumo’s Surshield Safety IV Catheter and will seek damages and other relief for Terumo’s infringement.
A recent landmark study conducted by GERES (Groupe d’Etude sur le Risque d’Exposition des Soignants) of 22 million safety devices used in 61 French hospitals over a two-year period has confirmed the theory that passive, fully automatic safety devices like B Braun’s Introcan Safety IV Catheter offer significantly better protection against NSIs than early generation active safety technologies such as semi-automatic (push-button) devices or those with manually sliding shields or hinged caps.