SIGILLO vs SUPREME CORQ
Match fra tappi sintetici: Oremplast si aggiudica i primo round.

Patent N° EP-B-0698054 registered by Supreme Corq, has been revoked, with notice on the 14th of January 2005, by the European Patent Office.

The American company, known for the production and marketing of wine corks of the same name, tried to patent the plastic used to produce them, but a Technical panel of experts held the company's reasoning invalid, with the intention of gaining the exclusive right on the production of corks for wine bottles made of a compound that includes a thermoplastic elastomer chosen from SEBS, SEPS and SIS or mixtures of the same and a "blowing agent".

In other words, it would have been the same if a producer of bottles tried to patent silica, being a component of the glass.

The procedure with which the Supreme Corq patent has been revoked is called "opposition". This procedure is identical to case of invalidity, with the difference that a case of invalidity comes before the national court while the opposition comes before the Division of Opposition of the European Patent Office. The opposition is more "powerful" as any decision of the office automatically has effect in all the countries covered by the patent, while a national case only regards the country in which it is examined.

Therefore, the first “round” of the procedure of opposition, has been won by a consortium of synthetic cork producers, represented by Studio Modiano of Milan. Oremplast (a company producing the SIGILLO corks) is part of this consortium.