EIP today achieved further success for its Finnish client Teleste Corporation, manufacturer of cable television equipment, and their UK subsidiary Teleste Limited when His Honour Judge Hacon, sitting as a Deputy Judge of the United Kingdom Patents Court, handed down his decision in Technetix BV and Technetix Limited’s patent infringement action against Teleste Limited.
The Judgment was favourable to Teleste in that the Judge determined that Technetix’s patent was invalid on several grounds and that it should be revoked.
This decision follows on from a previous decision of Judge Hacon in January of this year in another action brought by Technetix against Teleste alleging infringement of its United Kingdom patent relating to tap banks. In that earlier decision Judge Hacon, then sitting as a Judge in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC), found that Technetix’s patent in that case was also invalid and should be revoked.
Gary Moss, the Head of EIP Legal, who led the EIP team on both actions, said:
“This latest decision coupled with the earlier IPEC decision represents a very satisfactory outcome for our client, Teleste Corporation. These cases have been hanging over them since the end of 2016, and it has been a surprisingly long haul. These two decisions are a complete vindication of the positions which our client adopted in these actions and are the outcome of some very hard work by our team.”
Johan Slotte, the Deputy CEO of Teleste Corporation, said:
“We are obviously very pleased and gratified at the outcome of these two cases and are appreciative of Judge Hacon’s careful consideration of the issues. We were subject to some very serious allegations and it is good that these have now been shown to be without merit.
We would like to thank our lawyers, EIP Legal, for their fine work in the conduct of both actions and for their sound advice and continued support throughout."
It is not clear whether Technetix will seek to appeal this latest decision. They can only do so with the permission of the Judge or the Court of Appeal. Technetix did not seek to appeal the IPEC judgment earlier this year.
The EIP team comprised Gary Moss, Angela Jack, Jack Dickerson, Owen Waugh and Laurence Brown. Counsel for Teleste were James Mellor QC and Thomas Jones.