Finnegan client BTG prevails in EPO opposition proceedings in the field of vein sclerotherapy

Finnegan represented BTG in defending its granted European patent in an appeal by Kreussler against the decision of the EPO to reject its opposition. The patent relates to BTG’s Varithena sclerotherapy foam product for treatment of varicose veins that has recently received regulatory approval in the U.S. During the opposition, we argued that the experimental evidence produced by Kreussler was deliberately misleading. We presented our own evidence showing why the experiments performed by Kreussler failed and how merely following the explicit teaching of the patent would avoid such failure. At appeal, Kreussler was limited to a single prior art document and only a subset of the granted claims was considered to be challenged. At the appeal hearing in surprisingly quick fashion, the EPO denied Kreussler’s grounds of appeal and maintained the patent in its granted form.