The  US  Patent  Office  recently  granted  two additional patents to COPAN regarding flocked swabs. The patent numbers are US  8,979,784  and  US  9,011,358, issued on 17th March 2015 and 21st April 2015 respectively. These two patents, are continuations of previous applications related to the flocked swab technology, proudly invented and developed by Copan and dedicated to the collection  of biological specimens.

These new grants follow the two previous US patents, US 8,114,027 and US 8,317,728, and further strengthen the protection of COPAN’s flocked swab invention in the US and key markets, including many European countries, Japan, China, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Additional continuation patent applications are currently under examination at the US Patent Office.

Notably these two new US patents, US 8,979,784 and US 9,011,358, have a broad scope of protection for the flocked swab device, in addition to the method of use of such device previously covered by the first two US patents. COPAN is in a strong position to legally stop any infringing activity, such as manufacturing, promoting and selling, including exporting from the US to other countries, flocked swabs covered by the patent claims.

The Copan Team is available to provide any clarifications regarding this matter.

About COPAN Group

With a reputation for innovation, COPAN is the leading manufacturer of collection and transport systems in the world. COPAN’s collaborative approach to pre-analytics has

resulted in Flock Swabs, ESwab, UTM™ and modular laboratory automation, WASP^® and WASPLab. For more information about COPAN, visit http://www.copanitalia.com.