KIPA AB a Swedish IP firm today announced that it has again successfully coordinated a pan European litigation leading to a positive ruling for one of it’s clients by the U.K. Patents Court in the High Court of Justice. In the present case, Mr Justice Roth issued a judgment that invalidates AGA/St Jude´s patent EP0957773 in the UK (AGA Medical Corporation v Occlutech (UK) Ltd [2014] EWHC 2506 (Pat), 22 July 2014.). …
This decision is similar in effect to a decision obtained by the EPO for the same patent from an Opposition Division in Munich already in December 2013, seehttps://register.epo.org/application?number=EP97922307&lng=en&tab=doclist . The EPO decision was obtained by representatives from KIPA and revoked the patent in its entirety as it extended beyond the application as filed. The UK ruling states that the patent is invalid due to public prior use of devices supplied by one of the inventors before the priority date of the patent. Occlutech is happy about this success, see http://en.prnasia.com/story/101539-0.shtml as it thus is not legally hindered by any of proceedings based on AGA’s patents to sell any of its products in the UK market or elsewhere. Both rulings are subject to appeal by AGA/St Jude.
This ruling is part of a second round of litigation proceedings between the same parties. The first proceedings were related to AGA’s patent EP808 138 where Occlutech was found not to infringe in UK, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden and Italy. The earlier proceedings were also successfully coordinated by KIPA AB, see e.g. https://kipatest.solitonsolutions.se/2013/03/27/occlutech-wins-swedish-appeals-court-case-against-agast-jude-medical/ and https://kipatest.solitonsolutions.se/2012/05/29/occlutech-wins-dutch-supreme-court-case-against-agast-jude-medical/ .
For the present proceedings, AGA/St Jude started litigation against Occlutech for infringing the 0957773 patent in the UK and in Germany in 2011. While the U.K. court continued proceedings towards the present judgment, the German district court in Düsseldorf chose to stay proceedings until the EPO having taken a final decision on the validity/invalidity of the patent.
The team from KIPA AB coordinating the pan European litigation and representing Occlutech during the opposition proceedings were Erik Krahbichler, EPA and Pär Hjalmarsson, EPA.
Erik Krahbichler of KIPA says, “We are delighted to receiving another positive judgement for one of our clients. It is a confirmation of our successful work in Pan European litigations where we advise clients on litigation strategy and provide evaluations and recommendations with regard to the prospect of success.”
For more details, see here. The Approved Judgment can be downloaded here.
Erik Krahbichler, EPA Pär Hjalmarsson, EPA