ACT_61342/2024
CLAY-BASED HEMOSTATIC AGENTS AND DEVICES FOR THE DELIVERY THEREOF
Teleflex Life Sciences applied for a preliminary injunction against Speed Care Mineral's hemostatic wound-care products based on EP 2 077 811. The Hamburg Local Division dismissed the application because Teleflex failed to demonstrate with the required certainty that the attacked product contained a 'binder' as claimed, and the burden of proof was not reversed in the applicant's favour. Since infringement could not be established, the court did not need to assess patent validity or other PI requirements.
Burden of proof for patent infringement lies with applicant and is not reversed without sufficient prior indication of infringement
BeklagterRechtsgrundlage: Art. 62(2) UPCA; Rule 209(2) RoPHinweis: The Hamburg Local Division confirmed that the standard burden of proof on the applicant to establish infringement was not reversed in this case because Teleflex had not provided reasonable indications that the accused product contained a 'binder' as required by the claims.
Attacked embodiment (Speed Care hemostatic gauze) contains a binder as required by patent claims
KlägerRechtsgrundlage: EP 2 077 811Begründung: Teleflex failed to demonstrate with sufficient certainty that the attacked product contains a binder; the defendant's evidence (scanning electron microscope images from University of Greifswald) showed mechanical adhesion of halloysite to cellulose fiber without a binder, and Teleflex presented no contradicting evidence.
Burden of proof should be reversed because applicant has provided reasonable indications of infringement
KlägerRechtsgrundlage: Rule 209(2) RoPBegründung: The court found that the applicant's evidence was insufficient to constitute 'reasonable indications and/or facts' that would reverse the burden of proof.
The central claim construction issue was the meaning of 'binder' in EP 2 077 811 (clay-based hemostatic agents). The court did not resolve this definitively because it found infringement not proven regardless: the defendant argued that halloysite nanotubes mechanically adhere to the Lyocell carrier via interlacing and electrostatic processes without a binder, and Teleflex could not disprove this.