The witnesses
26.Both parties filed evidence from two experts, a developer of intermittent catheters and a clinician with experience of using them. Both also had a witness of fact. In the case of MacGregor this was Michael Sorth, a director of MacGregor. Mr Sorth did not provide a witness statement but he had signed MacGregor’s Reply to Defence to Counterclaim. As is usual in this court, at the case management conference it was ordered that the pleadings would stand as evidence in chief of the facts stated in them. Mr Sorth was cross-examined. 27.Coloplast’s developer was Gunvor Anette Israelsson, a former employee of Astra Tech (“Astra”), part of the Astra Zeneca group. In September 1997 Astra was the biggest player in the urinary catheter market, followed by Coloplast. At that time the most used intermittent catheter in Europe, and possibly beyond, was an Astra product called ‘LoFric’. It had been launched in 1983 and was the first urinary catheter to have a hydrophilic coating. LoFric is still on the market today. Unlike the patented product, water from a source outside the packaging must be added to the hydrophilic coating before use. 28.Ms Israelsson started at Astra in 1991, joining a team working on intermittent catheter development. She is the first-named inventor on the Israelsson prior art. 29.Coloplast’s clinician was Kathy Howard, a nurse with experience of some 45 years working with urology patients using intermittent catheters. 30.Jonathan Carr was Coloplast’s witness of fact, his evidence being directed to the commercial success of Coloplast’s ‘SpeediCath’ product, the intermittent catheter marketed by Coloplast which embodied the invention claimed in the Patent. Mr Carr has worked in finance and accounting roles at Coloplast since 1989 and is now Senior Commercial Excellence Manager. 31.Jan Torstensen was the developer who gave expert evidence on behalf of MacGregor, although most of his experience came from his time at Coloplast where he was employed from 1991 to 2012. Even more unusually, he is a named inventor on the Patent, giving evidence in support of MacGregor’s contention that the Patent is invalid. Mr Torstensen is currently Senior Product Engineer at Dansac A/S, a manufacturer of ostomy products. 32.Ann Cahill gave clinical expert evidence for MacGregor. At the Patent’s filing date she was a nurse in Hertfordshire specialising in continence issues. Ms Cahill has also contributed to a book, published in 1994, about intermittent catheterisation. She retired in 2011. 33.In my view all the witnesses were doing their honest best to help the court and in the cases of Mr Carr and Mr Sorth, to state the facts accurately as they saw them.