Aquavit Pharmaceuticals, Inc (“Aquavit”) continues to succeed in its intellectual property cases against counterfeiters both domestically and abroad.
Following a recent win against counterfeiter U-BioMed, Inc. (“U-BioMed) across the European Union, the U.S. Southern District Court of New York adopted Judge Lehrburger’s recommendations that any sanctions related to U-BioMed’s deletion of its Instagram account, which blatantly exploited Aquavit’s AQUAGOLD product illegally, be folded into the pre-existing sanctions requiring U-BioMed to pay Aquavit’s reasonable legal fees and costs associated with the sanctions-related motions. The Court further reinforced Lehrburger’s preview award ordering U-BioMed to pay attorney fees and costs to Aquavit in compensatory damages.
U-BioMed’s continuous violation of the court’s order in 2019 has to date accumulated the court’s coercive sanction to millions of dollars.
“The depths to which counterfeiters have gone to exploit Aquavit’s patented technology, confuse customers, and attempt to trick the legal system(s) is criminal, especially with FDA regulated medical devices,” said Sobin Chang, CEO of Aquavit. “It is of the utmost importance that we protect our physicians from liability and misinformation and continue to keep our patients safe.”
Aquavit’s victorious claim against U-BioMed with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) has set a significant milestone. The court acknowledged that U-BioMed knowingly and intentionally filed an infringing trademark application with the EUIPO for the mark “AQUAGOLD Fine Touch”.
“The counterfeits appear almost identical to the naked eye; however, they do not contain the microchannels as they claim and are often made of regular steel that are not biocompatible under the FDA’s medical device material guidelines. Furthemore, they infringe on our ‘repeated motion’ drug delivery utility patent (U.S. Patent No . 10,980,865) for any drugs, components or biologics.” says Dr. David Shafer, Aquavit’s Chief Medical Technology Officer.
The EUIPO has declared U-BioMed’s actions to be willful and done purposefully in an effort to confuse consumers with Aquavit’s already existing AQUAGOLD products being sold globally. The EUIPO issued a cancellation of U-BioMed’s infringing mark, upheld Aquavit’s application for a declaration of invalidity, and held U-Biomed accountable for the legal costs in the European Union.
About Aquavit
Aquavit is a high-tech pharmaceutical company that provides a comprehensive range of innovative pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device technologies. Aquavit focuses on personalized medicine to improve patients’ health, maximize the efficiency of our medical community, and support the pharmacoeconomics of payers.
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