BioMar has decided to appeal the judgement on having infringed one of the two existing STIM patents in Norway and violated the Marketing Act, it reads in a pressrelease.
Biomar disagrees with having copied a technology protected by valid patents or carried out other wrongdoings by the launch of the previous version of their smolt transfer product Intro Tuning.
“BioMar Norway truly believes that a general known method to improve smoltification in aquaculture cannot be protected by a patent. As an important contributor to innovation in the industry and a company with a strong record of developing patented technology, we fully respect intellectual property rights. We however believe that in this case, we have not infringed any valid patent as the fundamental knowledge existed both internally in BioMar and within the industry prior to the filing of the STIM patent in question. We have continued to develop an approach to aid the smoltification process and by our innovations contributed with new feeds and technology to improve both cost efficiency and biological impact”, explains Håvard Jørgensen, MD BioMar Norway and former Global R&D Director in BioMar Group.
Supported by expert patent lawyers the STIM patent case against BioMar in Norway will therefore be appealed.
“We will continue to fight for the industry’s right to produce feed to support the growth and health during seawater transfer and smoltification and such give farmers the possibility to implement the feeding strategy of their own choice”, concludes Håvard Jørgensen
