Medic-Aid Limited

How we help our clients to protect their business

Background

Medic-Aid was a small UK-based company that developed and manufactured medical devices for the healthcare profession. Its clients included hospitals, clinics and NHS trusts. The company has since been acquired and subsumed into a large multi-national corporation.

The issue

Withers & Rogers were approached by Medic-Aid when their biggest competitor, a German company, threatened to sue for infringement of one of their patents and of unregistered design right following the launch of an important new product. The product, a drug delivery device, was fundamentally important to Medic-Aid's business, so it was crucial that they were able to continue selling it.

The solution

After carrying out an assessment of the competitor's position, with the assistance of a specialist IP barrister, we recommended that they made modifications to their product in order to avoid infringement. We worked with them to achieve this by advising on the components of the device which might be modified to avoid infringement. Our client analysed the modifications to devise a revised design which would maintain the performance and ease of manufacture of the original product. This process was carried out quickly in order to limit the potential for damages from the original product, since any resulting court action would award liability based on the number of products sold.

The outcome

Through our discussions, Medic-Aid were able to identify minor changes that could be made to their product without having to incur the expense of retooling. We also successfully defended the competitor's patent infringement suits in the UK and Germany.

What the client says

"Withers & Rogers supported us in quickly devising a low cost, effective design-around to avoid infringement of the competitor's patent. Not only that, but they were able to successfully defend the competitor's patent infringement suits. It was the best possible outcome for us. Our product was a cornerstone of our business for several years, and it was crucial to our development that we were not blocked by the patent."

John Denyer, then Technical Director of Medic-Aid

"Our patent advisers perform a key role in helping us to assess the real potential of our inventions. They carry out patent searches, often to very detailed technical criteria and provide information about any incumbent patents, which may limit the potential of our own work. Based on this knowledge, we can then take an informed decision about how to proceed."

John Wheals, Chief Engineer of Innovation, Ricardo