French Court Rules in Favor of CoorsTek Medical in Ceramic Hip Suit

CoorsTek Medical, a U.S. manufacturer of implantable ceramic components, announced that the Paris, France High Court has ruled in its favor in a lawsuit brought by CeramTec, attempting to block the manufacture and sale of CoorsTek’s CeraSurf®-p pink ceramic component.

In its ruling, the court stated that CeramTec sought to “indefinitely perpetuate the technical effect” of its patent covering its Biolox Delta materials — which expired at the same time CeramTec was filing for its “pink” trademarks — in order to prevent its competitors from selling products using the once patented composition. The court found that CeramTec’s actions at the time of filing the trademarks were done in bad faith. The results of this judgement are that CeramTec’s European Union trademark registrations related to the color pink as applied to ceramic implants are invalid and unenforceable throughout the European Union, and that CeramTec’s infringement action against CoorsTek was dismissed.

This High Court decision follows a similar ruling in January 2017, when the U.S. District Court for Colorado ruled in favor of CoorsTek Medical in its lawsuit challenging trademark and trade dress claims of CeramTec in the U.S. to the color pink for implantable ceramic hip components. In its order, the court stated that CeramTec did not own any trademark or trade dress rights to the color pink in the U.S., and that CoorsTek Medical’s pink-colored CeraSurf-p ceramic components did not infringe any purported rights of CeramTec in the color pink. The court enjoined CeramTec from interfering with CoorsTek Medical’s efforts to market CeraSurf-p ceramic components in the U.S. based on any claim of trademark or trade dress protection for the color pink.

Source: CoorsTek

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