Law applied:
PatG § 82
Summary:
(1) The limited defense of a patent claim attacked with a partial invalidity action by combining it with the features of a non-attacked subclaim is inadmissible for lack of interest in legal protection (confirmation of Federal Supreme Court (BGH), judgment of March 1, 2017 - X ZR 10/15, GRUR 2017, 604 para. 27 et seq. - Ankopplungssystem). This also applies if the features of the non-attacked subclaim are not literally included in the defended version, but are included in substance.
(2) An interest in legal protection exists, however, if the challenged claim is merely supplemented by a part of the features of a non-challenged subclaim.
Federal Supreme Court, judgment dated June 13, 2023 – X ZR 47/21
Download full Judgment (machine translation)
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