Materialise N.V. and Materialise Dental N.V., manufacturer of 3D implant planning systems have filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Biocare, AB and its U.S. subsidiary Nobel Biocare U.S.A. LLC in the Central District of California.
Materialise claims that Nobel Biocare’s NobelGuide drilling template is in violation of its patented SurgiGuide techniques. (The SugiGuide U.S. patent was issued in 1998.) Earlier this year, the District Court of Dusseldorf found NobelGuide's drilling templates violated a European patent held by Materialise and ordered Nobel to stop offering the templates in Germany
"With this lawsuit, we are protecting our technology", said Bart Swaelens, CEO of Materialise Dental in a press release. "Our SimPlant software was launched in 1991, and was followed by our SurgiGuide drill guides in 1999. The introduction of NobelGuide by Nobel Biocare, on the other hand, did not occur until 2005."
Materialise's current suit is a response to Nobel Biocare's recently filed civil action suit in the Central District Court of California. Nobel Biocare seeks declaratory judgments that the Nobel Guide template does not infringe Materialise's patent.
