Kaneka appeals the Düsseldorf District Court’s decision

On March 13, 2012, the District Court of Düsseldorf released its decisions in the patent infringement actions brought by Kaneka Corporation against Zhejiang Medicine Co., Ltd. and its distributor Kyowa Hakko. The Court held that the two defendants did not infringe Kaneka’s patent on the production of coenzyme Q10. Kaneka was disappointed with the Court’s decision and appealed it on April 16, 2012.

The asserted patent is directed to methods of producing coenzyme Q10. As explained by Dr. Dariush Adli of the Adli Law Group, PC, which is counsel to Kaneka in the parallel U.S. litigation, “It is very difficult to prove infringement of the patented methods without fact discovery on the actual manufacturing process used by ZMC.” According to Dr. Adli, “Despite this setback, Kaneka will appeal the decision of the lower court to the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf and seek vindication of its patent rights in the court of higher review.”

Dr. Adli emphasized that Kaneka Corporation remains committed to vigorously defense of its intellectual property rights in all jurisdictions where such rights have been issued, pointing out that Kaneka continues to maintain its patent infringement actions in France and the United States on European Patent EP 1 466 983 and U.S. Patent No. 7,910,340, both of which are related patents claiming methods of manufacturing Coenzyme Q10.