Nobel Biocare says court refuses injunction
UPDATE 1 Nobel Biocare says court refuses injunction
Wed Jul 30, 2008
Reporting by Oliver Hirt in Zurich
Writing by Andrew Thompson
Editing by Paul Bolding
Reuters UK
ZURICH, July 30 (Reuters) - A court in Germany has dismissed a request from Belgian dental implant software maker Materialise for an injunction against a Nobel Biocare (NOBN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research) software product, supporting the Swiss dental implant maker's shares.
Materialise had alleged the updated version of Nobel Biocare's NobelGuide software infringed one of its patents, a spokesman for Nobel Biocare told Reuters on Wednesday.
The Duesseldorf district court decided that the NobelGuide software does not infringe the Belgian company's patent, Nobel Biocare said.
The updated version had been introduced as a response to last year's decision by the same court that found an infringement in the previous software version, the Swiss company said.
Nobel Biocare said it remains to be seen whether Materialise will appeal against the court's decision.
The Belgian company was not available for comment.
Nobel Biocare's shares rose on the news and ended trading 1.5 percent higher at 33.00 Swiss francs, outperforming nearly unchanged DJ Stoxx European healthcare index .
Nobel Biocare also said it had appointed Novica Savic as country manager in Germany on May 1.
Nobel also said it had filled the vacant positions of country manager Switzerland and United Kingdom. Both will assume their responsibilities in the next months.
Investors have been worried about Nobel's lack of a stable management team in a number of key European markets, including Germany, Switzerland and Britain.
The group itself had said the former regional management teams had failed to keep up with market growth in these countries. (Reporting by Oliver Hirt in Zurich; Writing by Andrew Thompson; Editing by Paul Bolding)
© Thomson Reuters 2008
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