“HeatCut” technology of embroidery machines litigated again

Case No. S2014_004 ¦ Hearing of 05 June 2014

The parties know each other from an earlier case at the FPC: Lässer and Oerlikon Saurer Arbon were already litigating in the matter S2012_004; see a post commenting on that case here. From my understanding during the course of the hearing, EP 1 983 083 B1 might be at stake now (to be confirmed). Note that this is a patent within the patent family of EP 1 985 736 B1 that had been litigated before.

The claimant asked for interim injunctive relief. At the beginning of the hearing, the claimant had distributed a written statement and used this as the basis for his plea. But only selected parts of the written statement were orally presented. Consequently, it was not clear for the defendant what the basis for his reply should be. The defendant disputed any infringment and insisted on neither using the protected device nor the method according to the patent-in-suit.

In the claimant’s view, interim measures were justified since the (allegedly infringing) “HeatCut” system is excessively used in marketing activities by the defendant and can be used to upgrade existing machines (see e.g. brochure below). It was argued that this would constitute an irreparable harm for the claimant.

As outlined by the defendant, the allegedly infringing device is already on the market since 2011. In fact, it was argued that it is still the same device as in the matter S2012_004 (it was also referred to a parallel law suit in Taiwan). Thus, the defendant argued that no interim measures are to be granted for lack of urgency. 

Both parties agreed to enter into the non-public part of the hearing / settlement negotiations, but the defendant pointed out that taking a license is no option for him.

Reported by Susanna RUDER and Martin WILMING

— BIBLIOGRAPHY —

Case No. S2014_004 ¦ Hearing of 05 June 2014

Lässer AG Stickmaschinen ./. Oerlikon Saurer Arbon AG

Subject(s):

  • Infringement
  • Interim measures

Composition of the Board of the FPC:

  • Dr. iur. Dieter BRÄNDLE (President, Judge)
  • Dr. sc. nat. Tobias BREMI (Judge)
  • Frank SCHNYDER (Judge)
  • Lic. iur. Susanne ANDERHALDEN (Court Secretary)

Representative(s) of claimant:

Representative(s) of defendant:

  • Dr. Stefan KOHLER (Vischer AG)
  • Roland HÜTHER (TMP), assisting in patent matters

— TECHNICAL BACKGROUND —

A brochure on the “HeatCut” technology of the defendant, for ease of understanding of the general technology:

Download (PDF, 4.34MB)

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