The Supreme Court held that claiming priority of an earlier application requires a direct and unambiguous disclosure in the priority document of all features of the technical teaching as defined in the claims. If the claimed invention is characterized by a particular property of one of its components that has not (clearly) been disclosed in…
The Federal Court of Justice held that the meaning of a patent claim as a whole and the contribution of the single features to the result of the invention must be assessed in nullity proceedings. It is not permitted to attribute a certain meaning to the claim to only avoid an issue of undue broadening….
The Court held that the marketing of coffee capsules suitable for a Nespresso machine does not infringe the patent on an extraction system for the coffee capsules. Instead, the user of the machine is also permitted to use capsules which are not marketed by the patent holder. This is at least the case if the…
The uninterrupted transit of goods designated with a trademark that is protected in Germany does not constitute an infringement of the trademark right according to German law. Should the trademark be protected in the country of destination, a foreign IP right will not be protected, owing to the principle of territory of property rights, as…
In a recent decision (BGH X ZR 7/12) the Bundesgerichtshof had to decide whether the Appeal Court violated its general obligation to elucidate the facts relevant for the decision by not ordering the inspection of a machine by an expert. The underlying case concerned a claim for patent infringement by use of a patented process….
by Bernward Zollner In a case called “Produktionsrückstandsentsorgung” the German Bundesgerichtshof has discussed a case in which the claim of the litigious patent had been amended and narrowed with respect to the scope of protection after the judgment of the appeal court had been handed down. The appeal court therefore, could not have discussed the…
by Miriam Büttner On 27 November 2012 the German Federal Supreme Court (BGH) decided on the ethical problematical question, if neural precursor cells which origin from human stem cells are patentable or not (case no. X ZR 58/07). Background of the decision: Subject of this BGH decision is the validity of German patent no. 197…
The number of patent infringement suits filed with the District Court of Düsseldorf remains constantly high. In addition to the two existing patent litigation chambers (chamber 4a presided by Dr. Crummenerl and chamber 4b presided by Ms Voss), the Court now installed a third 4c chamber. This new 4c chamber already started its work at…
As Christmas is coming closer, the “where is the Christmas stand?”-question comes up again. This little piece of engineering only used once a year is not only subject matter of several patents but has kept the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf busy, too (docket No. I-2 U 84/03). Who could imagine that a Christmas stand…
In the assessment of inventive step, the question whether the prior art discloses a pointer for the skilled person to use the measures described therein, and to apply these to a known substance, could be relevant. It should be investigated whether the measures from the prior art gave rise to the expectation that the solution…
