Preliminary injunctions in patent disputes can be a very effective weapon to fight against free riders on the one hand but are equally hurtful for defendants being at-tacked unjustifiably on the other hand. Such preliminary injunctions, especially when granted on an ex parte basis, can simply hinder the defendant to conduct business on the market….
This blog relates to the decision “Lungenfunktionsmessgerät” (lung function analyser) by the Higher Regional Court (Oberlandesgericht) of Duesseldorf (judgement of 24 February 2011, docket no. I-2 U 122/09). The court had to deal with the differentiation between direct and indirect patent infringement. The patent in suit, EP 0 606 351, provided for an apparatus for…
The German Patent Act (sec. 145) provides for a special limitation of further actions on account of the same or similar act based on different patents. Such actions shall only be admissible if the plaintiff was not in a position to assert a patent in an earlier suit without his own fault. The landmark decision…
