Brussels, Belgium 13 June 2014 -- (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sonoco-Alcore S.a.r.l., a wholly owned subsidiary of Sonoco (NYSE:SON), one of the largest diversified global packaging companies, announced that on June 12, 2014, 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^® 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.

Sonoco Alcore's M-Series Cores are available throughout Europe and can bring benefits to other industries as well as the paper industry. For more information please contact Karsten Kemmerling at +32 2 711 0900 or karsten.kemmerling@sonoco.com.

About Sonoco Alcore

Sonoco-Alcore S.a.r.l. is wholly-owned by Sonoco (NYSE:SON) and operates 30 tube and core plants and five paperboard mills in Europe. Founded in 1899, Sonoco is a global provider of a variety of consumer packaging, industrial products, protective packaging and packaging supply chain services. With annual net sales of approximately $4.9 billion, the Company has 19,900 employees working in 335 operations in 33 countries, serving many of the world's best-known brands in some 85 nations. Sonoco is a proud member of the 2013/2014 Dow Jones Sustainability World Index. For more information on the Company, visit our website at www.sonoco.com