Decision Keyword:
Evaporation dryer system
Law applied:
PatG §§ 9, 139 para. 2
German Civil Code (BGB) § 249 Bb
Summary (Machine translation):
- Profits from the performance of a contract which is causally linked to a patent infringing offer may not be disregarded when calculating the damage caused by this offer simply because the acts performed in the performance of this contract took place in a patent-free foreign country.
- If there is a sufficient causal connection, the injured party is in principle free to calculate its damages on the basis of its own lost profits or a reasonable license fee.
- In the case of a patent infringement, the objection that the same economic result could also have been achieved by non-infringing acts cannot in principle lead to the exclusion of a claim for damages.
- The calculation of damages on the basis of a reasonable license fee is not excluded simply because there is no relevant licensing practice in the industry.
- The low level of protection that a prohibition relating solely to the offering of the protected product may offer is not sufficient reasons from the point of view of an economically minded right holder to allow offers in Germany free of charge and thus to waive part of the protection to which he is entitled.
Federal Supreme Court (BGH), judgment of 7.5.2024 – X ZR 104/22 –
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