BVBA VR Construct v. Jurenco Equipment B.V., District Court The Hague, The Netherlands, 26 May 2010, Case No. HA ZA 08-2766
Belgian and European patent on a brush and method for manufacturing such a brush. The District Court defers its decision as far as it concerns the question regarding infringement of the Belgian patent and the foreign parts of the European patent, since Jurenco alleges invalidity of those patents (with reference to GAT/LuK en Roche/Primus).
A decloratory judgment of non-infringement based on the argument that the patent is invalid due to lack of inventive step can also only be given for brushes sold in the Netherlands as the Court is not competent to rule on the validity of the foreign (part of the Eureopean) patent.
Serving a writ of summons based on a patent that is not yet granted is allowable (contrary to an earlier decision by the Judge in preliminary injunction proceedings). It suffices that the patent is granted at the moment the judgment is rendered. The patent was found to be invalid due to lack of inventive step.
Read the judgment (in Dutch) here.
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