In its ruling X ZR 72/22 of July 9, 2024, the Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof – BGH) addressed the matter of the function-oriented interpretation of features in patent claims. The case concerned the patent for scales with a support plate and an electrical switching device.
Various functions of the scales and their individual parts are described in the patent claim concerned. The claimant was of the opinion that the subject matter of the property right was not patentable and insisted on a declaration of invalidity. The Federal Court of Justice dismissed the claim on appeal, emphasizing the function-oriented interpretation. It held that the features of a patent claim must be “interpreted in accordance with the function assigned to them by the invention.” On this basis, the Court found significant differences to the closest prior art. At the same time, the judges in Karslruhe made it clear that a purely grammatical interpretation – as in this specific case – can lead to an isolated approach. This may be contradictory to the function that the feature in question fulfils.
“With its ruling, the Federal Court of Justice is clarifying an important principle of interpretation that is also common practice at the Düsseldorf court,” say Svenja Schwandt and Dr. Peter Drabo from Cohausz & Florack. “It may therefore be advisable for patent holders to describe the function of individual features of the invention in detail when drafting the patent specification. As the most recent Federal Court of Justice decision in this matter shows, this can be of importance not only in patent infringement proceedings, but also in revocation suits.”
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