Italian Lower Limb Prosthesis Company Wins Lawsuit Against German Giant Ottobock

MILAN, October 27, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

The Italian company Roadrunnerfoot has obtained the right to produce, exhibit and sell its artificial "lower limb", after the German giant Ottobock sought to impeach their patent.

     (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20141027/713097 )

After four years of fighting, the definitive judgement has arrived: Roadrunnerfoot, the small Italian company that designs and produces innovative and accessible hi-tech prostheses with composite materials, has won against global German giant and competitor Ottobock. Now Roadrunnerfoot can resume selling the jewel of the prosthetic foot field, the "Roadwalking". This uses the revolutionary concept of maintaining three points on the ground, in a similar way to the human roll over, thus creating a new, sound limb for amputees.

This story started in 2010 without sense, because the claim made by Ottobock about the subject of the impeached patent, parallel laminates in a prosthetic foot, is an innovation that has been in production for 80 years.

Roadrunnerfoot Engineering s.r.l., founded by Daniele Bonacini (Paralympic athlete of Athens 2004 and mechanical engineer) has been based in Milan, Italy since 2007. The company designs, manufactures and distributes innovative prosthetics, orthotics devices and wheelchairs for disabled people, specializing in aids made from composite materials. The company's engineering department uses the latest design technology in their Gait Analysis lab to analysis the behaviour of new design solutions and offer support before, during and after sale.

Design and manufacture in Italy: our engineering approach  

Our mission is "High technology for all users": high-performance products with ethical prices. Our products are CE marked with tests "outside the company" by Politecnico (University of Milan). They comply with CE 93/42 (regarding medical devices) and ISO prosthetic international standards and are registered by the FDA. The staff consists of biomedical engineers with extensive know-how about biomechanics and composite materials.

Our main innovation concerns our unique design methodology: the "Roadrunnerfoot Method", which focuses on users' needs. Starting from Gait Analysis with non-disabled and disabled people, we evaluate the performance, behaviour and sound of prosthetic lower limbs, with the goal of reducing the functionality gap between non-disabled and disabled people and defining the aids components. We are building a strong network of users in order to anticipate the future, to find new solutions and aids, and to improve quality of life for disabled people (as we did for children in Haiti, where we started the first orthopaedic laboratory on 20 February 2010 after the earthquake of 13 January with other companies arriving six months later).

Contact: Daniele Bonacini, [email protected]

SOURCE Roadrunnerfoot