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Legal battle over a crack pipe

2020-09-30T05:32:46.189Z


Counterfeit? Unfair competition ? The manufacturer of a model that reduces contaminations of diseases between users has assigned its competitor


The stake of the hearing which will be held this Wednesday, September 30 in front of the 3rd chamber of the court of Paris is surprising: a crack pipe.

That is to say, the instrument that allows consumers of this cocaine derivative to inhale this drug with devastating effects.

In this civil procedure, there is no question of traffic to be dismantled or of dealers to be questioned, but a commercial litigation against a background of public health policy.

The Terpan laboratory, which markets a kit intended to reduce the risk of contamination between users, assigns one of its competitors for counterfeiting and unfair competition as well as Safe, one of the main prevention associations in the capital.

Back to the past: from 2008, a group of associative actors strived to develop a tool to limit health risks between users.

Using poor quality pipes can cause burns or cuts and therefore spread diseases, such as AIDS or hepatitis.

The research is successful and, in 2012, the company Terpan begins to market its kit.

The following year, she filed a patent.

A patent filed “behind everyone's back”?

In 2015, Safe began to distribute the Terpan kit free of charge throughout France through vending machines, but “quickly realized that this kit was not suitable for such a distribution method because of its packaging and that 'a large quantity of kits did not meet the expected quality standards', as the association detailed in a press release published at the start of the procedure.

Safe then calls on another supplier, ASD.

The laboratory does not understand it that way.

“We found that the product marketed by ASD incorporated all the features of our patent.

It is both counterfeiting and an unfair act, ”explains Me Emmanuel de Marcellus, Terpan's lawyer, while refuting the accusations of defect.

In 2017, the laboratory therefore initiated legal action against the association and its new supplier, with the seizure of equipment.

He claims them nearly 100,000 euros.

But according to Safe, Terpan fraudulently appropriated the tool developed in partnership with associations.

“They filed their patent behind everyone's back,” deplores Me Stanislas Roux-Vaillard, the association's lawyer.

What is more, it is an ill-gotten patent because, in reality, the kit had been developed by associations long before.

While the goal was to help everyone, it's unfortunate that a single supplier imagined they could control the market.

"

VIDEO.

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Case law on an opium pipe

“Terpan can't claim any patent because they weren't behind the design of this crack pipe.

They are simple manufacturers, who tried to arrogate to themselves a monopoly ”, adds Me Pierre-François Rousseau, lawyer of ASD, who, moreover, amused himself to unearth an old jurisprudence of 1913 which canceled a patent for an opium pipe.

On the side of Terpan, on the contrary, we insist on the efforts made for the development of this glass pipe.

"There is no doubt that this invention comes from the laboratory", asserts Me de Marcellus.

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It is now up to the judge to decide this precise question.

For Safe as for ASD, a self-employed company, the financial stake is important.

" We are worried.

All we want is to continue our public health mission, ”says Catherine Duplessis, Director of Safe.

Source: leparis

All tech articles on 2020-09-30

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