Press release dated January 04, 2017
By judgment dated November 29, 2016 (docket no. 2 O 44/16), the Regional Court of Mannheim ruled that SCHWIND eye-tech-solutions GmbH & Co. KG infringes the German part of European Patent 1 428 470 relating to an apparatus for determining and ablating a corneal tissue volume of a receiving cornea for corneal lamellar grafting transplantation. The patent proprietor is the Italian company IVIS TECHNOLOGIES S.r.l.
The European Patent 1 428 470 of IVIS TECHNOLOGIES S.r.l. constitutes a fundamental milestone in the implementation of a system to automate and customize corneal lamellar transplantations in order to standardize the surgical procedure and optimize quality of vision.
SCHWIND was ordered, inter alia, to cease and desist from manufacturing, offering for sale and distributing in Germany a combination of the modules AMARIS (laser system), SIRIUS (pachymeter system), and PALK-CAM (software), which falls under the scope of protection of patent claim 1. Furthermore, the Regional Court of Mannheim decided not to stay the infringement proceedings because it could not find a predominant likelihood of the patent-in-suit being revoked in the pending opposition proceedings (docket no. T 0747/15-3.2.02).
The Defendant has filed an appeal against the judgment with the Higher Regional Court of Karlsruhe. The judgment is provisionally enforceable against a provision of security by IVIS in the amount of EUR 300,000 with respect to the claim for injunctive relief, or EUR 50,000 with respect to each of the claims for information and rendering of accounts, recall and removal from the distribution channels and destruction.
For further details, the judgment of the Regional Court of Mannheim can be viewed here [in German].
Particular features of the proceedings:
The Italian counterpart of the patent-in-suit was asserted in parallel infringement proceedings before the Tribunale Torino (docket no. 24794/2012) by IVIS against SCHWIND and the infringement complaint was dismissed by the Tribunale in the first instance.
Counsel for IVIS TECHNOLOGIES S.r.l.: BARDEHLE PAGENBERG (Munich)
Johannes Heselberger (Attorney-at-Law, European Patent Attorney, Vice Managing Partner)
Dr. Michael Kobler (Attorney-at-Law)
Dr. Hans Wegner (German and European Patent Attorney, Partner)
Dr. Georg Anetsberger (German and European Patent Attorney)
Counsel for SCHWIND eye-tech-solutions GmbH & Co. KG:
KATHER AUGENSTEIN (Düsseldorf)
Dr. Peter Kather (Attorney-at-Law)
Jonas Block (Attorney-at-Law)
Hofstetter, Schurack & Partner (Munich)
Dr. Alfons J. Hofstetter (German and European Patent Attorney)
District Court of Mannheim, 2nd Civil Chamber:
Presiding Judge Dr. Kircher, Judge Dr. Weitz, Judge Lehmeyer
