DE - German Supreme Court "Fentanyl TTS"

German Supreme Court, 18 November 2010, docket no. Xa ZR 149/07 - "Fentanyl TTS".

In the case at issue the preamble of independent claim 1 stipulated that the claimed system comprised "at least one Fentanyl containing matrix layer" whereas the characterizing portion only addressed the concentration of this active compound in the "matrix layers" of the claimed system. In light of this inconsistency (singular/plural), the Federal Patents Court reduced the scope of independent claim 1 to systems comprising multiple matrix layers. In sum, according to the Federal Patents Court the characterizing portion of the claim takes precedence over the preamble.