District Court Gent, sixth chamber, 20 January 2011, nr. A/09/02830, Bvba Willems Biscuiterie v. NV Lotus Bakeries and NV 'T Boerinneke and NV Biscuiterie Jules Destrooper as intervening parties (with thank to Crowell & Moring).
Loutus is the holder of a Belgian patent for a speculaas product. Speculaas is a spiced biscuit and considered a typical Dutch culinary speciality. Willems filed for the invalidity of Lotus' patent and the District Court granted that invalidity claim. A recepy for speculaas pie was already published on the internet before the application date of the patent and therefore considered novelty-destroying by the court. Willems further claimed that Lotus had acted unlawful by threathening and enforcing its invalid patent, but tthe court dismissed this claim.
Read the decision (in Dutch) here.
Headnote: Wim Maas
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