Dutch Stopaq Beats Canadian Multinational in Patent Battle

STADSKANAAL, Netherlands, March 4, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

- Lawsuit About new Sealing Technology Continues in Germany

Yesterday, the Preliminary Relief Judge of the District Court of The Hague in the Netherlands ruled in favor of the private company Stopaq B.V. on all points in a legal dispute against Canusa related to Stopaq's green patented visco-elastic anti-corrosion coating and sealing technology.

Canusa, part of the Canadian stockquoted ShawCor company, claimed before the Court that it intended to bring two new Wrapid Bond products (styled RB-11 and RB-22) onto the Dutch market. It requested the judge to order Stopaq to accept that these products were outside the scope of Stopaq's patents and to refrain from making any comment that these products infringe such patents in the Netherlands.

The judge denied all of Canusa's requests finding that Canusa had not substantiated its allegation that Stopaq had threatened to enforce its patents against Canusa or its customers in the Netherlands. The current patent infringement proceedings against Canusa in Germany do not equate to such a threat in the Netherlands. The Court further considered that Stopaq has no legal obligation to declare that Canusa's alleged new products do not infringe Stopaq's patents.

Commenting on the legal victory, Drs. J.F. Doddema, CEO of Stopaq stated: "We are obviously pleased with the court's decision. The court emphatically rejected Canusa's attempt to short-circuit our rightful protections under the law and force us to accept their alleged new products, when in fact we have no knowledge that any of these products even exist in commercial form. This was simply an effort on their side to distract us from the patent infringement litigation in Germany. We still feel very confident about our case."

Stopaq's patent infringement actions against Canusa alleging that Canusa's Wrapid Bond product infringes its patented visco-elastic coating and sealing technology continue before the German patent courts in Mannheim.

http://www.stopaq.com