Date: 21/12/2010

Melexis wins the patent case at the Munich Federal Patent Court

The Federal Patent Court in Munich rendered its verdict on the patent nullity case initiated by Melexis in March 2009 against the austriamicrosystems patent EP0916074. In 1st instance, the Court declared all attacked patent claims (1-3 and 5-14) as null and invalid based on the prior art submitted by Melexis. This decision can be appealed at the Federal Supreme Court (Karlsruhe).

Melexis said in its release the invalidation of all relevant claims of the austriamicrosystems patent takes away the basis for the earlier judgment in the parallel patent infringement case judged in Düsseldorf on May 10 (1st instance) and against which Melexis has lodged an appeal with the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf.

austriamicrosystems responded by announcing it will appeal the court’s decision at the Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof) in Karlsruhe (Germany) after the first-instance court’s decision has been issued in writing. austriamicrosystems is confident to prevail in this next and final instance and to have the patent fully validated by the court.