BRUSSELS, Belgium – Sonoco-Alcore S.a.r.l., a wholly owned subsidiary of Sonoco has announced that the German Federal Court of Justice rejected an appeal against the German portion of Sonoco's European Patent EP 1 071 556, thereby reversing entirely a decision of the Federal Patent Court of March 1, 2011. The patent relates to the use of wide-ply board technology in the production of cores for the paper industry as used in Sonoco's M-Core(R) Series.

As a result of the decision, which is final and cannot be appealed, the patent is confirmed to have constantly been in force since it was granted in 2002. In other countries, the validity of the European patent has not been challenged to date. An opposition against the patent before the European Patent Office had been rejected in 2009.

The combination of the wide-ply in-house manufactured coreboard and Sonoco Alcore's proprietary manufacturing technique give the M-Series Cores increased performance characteristics to meet the higher demands of today's paper industry.

"The wide-ply board and our patented M-Line technology give us the ability to manufacture a core that has superior dynamic strength capabilities. Additionally, this also provides a higher critical speed than any other core in the market. Combined, this means the M-Core is not just a high performer but also has a higher safety margin for machine operators," said Matti Mykkanen, Sonoco Alcore's technology director, Europe.