Today I am going to discuss news that is about a landmark judgment (judgment available here) in Denmark. In this landmark ruling the Maritime and Commercial Court of Denmark ruled that European Patent 0756708 is partially invalid (this patent was of Phadia AB which conducts business in the field of research, production and marketing of diagnostic test systems and provides kits in the fields of allergy and sicknesses related to the immune defense system) and the court also ruled that BioPorto Diagnostics A/S

[a bio-tech company dealing with research, development, production and marketing of diagnostic tests and kits (especially for human diseases)] did not infringed Phadia’s patent. Phadia’s patent was ruled partially invalid on the basis of not having an inventive step.

CASE 

· Phadia got European patent no. 0756780 on 22nd May, 2001 which was validated as a Danish Patent. This patent was related to an invention in which humane neutrophil-lipocalin is used as a diagnostic marker for human illnesses, especially related to diagnosis of inflammatory diseases.

In 2010, Phadia filed a lawsuit again BioPorto NGAL products (kits 036 and 037) stating that they were infringing Phadia’s patent and further demanded that NGAL products should be withdrawn from the market and compensation should be paid to Phadia for any unit sold in the market.

COURT FINDINGS and RULINGS

· Court ruled the decision in this case on 15th June, 2012.

·  Court on invalidity said that evidences given by BioPorto are not enough to destroy novelty of the patent but after reading the patent, the court did said that patent lacked inventive step. Thus, it was ruled partially invalid.

· On the question of infringement court said:

§  For kit 036: Court said that this kit is not marked for or used in diagnosis of inflammation caused by a bacterial infection. Thus, court ruled that kit 036 did not infringed the patent

§  For kit 037: For this court said that according to court appointed experts, increase in the concentration of the protein which is measured by this kit after acute kidney damage cannot be related to inflammatory response caused by a bacterial infection.

·  In the end, court said that BioPorto have won this case so, Phadia have to give them a compensation of DKr1,705,052 as costs for this case.

CONCLUSION

In this case, court has gone into details and has read the patent properly in-depth. This shows us that how courts are serious about intellectual property as well. In this case the decision given on invalidity has made an impact because the court did not invalidated the patent but just partially invalidated it until the inventors prove that it does have an inventive step.