Appeal court grants injunction against infringement

In a technically complex case, on 29th January 2013 the Court of Appeal granted Agfa Graphics NV an injunction after finding that products offered and sold on the Dutch market by Chinese company Chendu Xingraphics Co Ltd NV infringed Agfa’s European patent specification EP 823.327 B1 (EP ‘327).

Facts
Agfa owns a number of key patents in the field of digital printing plates. Over the past two years Agfa has contacted a number of competitors in order to obtain compensation for the infringement of its intellectual property.

Agfa manufactures, among other things, positive photosensitive lithographic printing plates for digital printing. EP ‘327 relates to a method for manufacturing such digital printing plates. Agfa claimed that Xingraphics (indirectly) infringed EP ‘327.

Insufficient proof of infringement
At first instance the District Court of The Hague ruled that Agfa had insufficiently proved infringement and refused the relief that it requested. Xingraphics requested a decision of non-infringement, but also failed to prove this. Further, Xingraphics did not succeed in invalidating EP ‘327.

Decision
Agfa appealed the decision and submitted new and much more detailed evidence. The Court of Appeal reversed the decision of the district court, holding EP ‘827 to be valid and infringed.

Nederlandsch Octrooibureau represented Agfa in collaboration with attorneys at law from Brinkhof, Amsterdam.