Source: http://patentmyfrench.com/category/infringement/infringement-by-equivalence/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 11:50:37+00:00

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Infringement by equivalence Archives - Patent my French!
Today’s case relates to a shredder for plant materials. And while I was browsing online desperately looking for some kind of introductory witticism for this post, I came across a fiction character called the Shredder, to whom a very detailed Wikipedia page is dedicated. It turns out the Shredder is a villain in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics – which I must confess I really do not know anything about.
It is actually fascinating to find out that the Shredder’s webpage is significantly longer than the Wikipedia page on, say, the European Patent Convention. Just to put things into perspective.
So back to what I might indeed attempt to comment on, i.e. a dispute between Société d’Equipements pour l’Environnement (or SEE), owner of a French patent No. FR 2795661 and a European patent No. EP 1066883 (EP’883 claiming the priority of FR’661), and Rabaud, against which the two patents were asserted.
The invalidation of several claims of FR’661 for insufficiency of disclosure.
The finding that Rabaud’s shredder called Xylomix infringes the French part of claim 1 of EP’883 by equivalence.
An additional finding of contributory infringement.
The rejection of a false marking claim.
Let’s have a look at the invalidity issue first. Claim 1 of the priority patent FR’661 is quite different from claim 1 of the subsequent patent EP’883, which is why this invalidity issue only applies to the former.
Claim 1 of FR’661 concerns a shredder having a shredding rotor, wherein, in particular, “the rotor is suitable for creating an air flow for ejecting matter towards the ejection zone“.
[….] The drawings do not make it possible for the skilled person to understand what the means for creating the air flow in claim 1 is, since the inverted S-shaped line which can be seen on Figures 2 to 4 and the inverted S-shaped double line which can be seen on Figure 6 are not captioned, unlike the other elements making up the rotor, and do not make it possible to interpret claim 1 in such a way that the means is made of ventilation blades.
[…] In fact, on the other hand, this ventilation means is precisely described in claim 1 of [EP’883], at [paragraphs]  to  of the description, and is captioned in Figures 2 to 4 and 6 (with reference 16) and reproduced in three-dimensional view on Figure 7, which implies that without this description of the means for creating the air flow, the skilled person was not able to implement the invention simply based on common general knowledge.
A finding of insufficiency of disclosure is not a common thing. And when this finding is in the mechanical field, it is all the more uncommon. Even if the ventilation blades were not mentioned in FR’661, it may not be too difficult for the skilled person to think of such blades as a possible means for generating an air flow. So, was there something specific about the shape or positioning of the ventilation blades which was not obvious to achieve for the skilled person?
The judgment does not tell. But clearly the more detailed explanations in the European patent were held against the French patent. So, drafters had better be careful about leaving claimed functional features unexplained in the description.
See how easy it is to create an air flow?
After invalidating claim 1 of the French patent (as well as all other dependent claims asserted by SEE, for the same reason), the court turned to the European patent. Apparently no invalidity defense was raised by Rabaud, which was of course of a great help to the patent proprietor.
Rabaud focused on a non-infringement defense.
j. so as to serve as a multipurpose active drum.
The defendant argued that features h. and i. were not reproduced by the Xylomix apparatus.
Regarding feature i., Rabaud argued that Xylomix’ flails (defibring and bursting tools) do not act on the plant materials before its knives (cutting tools), whereas such a particular order of operation is required by claim 1. But the court was not convinced, especially because they said the order of operation is defined more particularly in a dependent claim 6, so that claim 1 is broader.
The judgment does not specifically address the word “successively” in feature i., which may support Rabaud’s defense. My understanding is that the court interpreted this adverb as simply introducing the various operations, as opposed to requiring a certain order between them. Such interpretation may be debatable. Also, depending claim 6 further specifies driving sections for the flails and knives and does not just add an order of operation to what is recited in claim 1.
Two means are held equivalent when, although they are of a different structure, they have the same function for achieving a result of a similar nature or degree.
In the Xylomix apparatus, the gauge is obtained by way of dedicated metal sheets and not by the ventilation means as required by feature h. Nevertheless, the court acknowledged that the gauge function is achieved in the Xylomix apparatus like in the patent and that the result is of a similar nature. Therefore, there was infringement by equivalence.
One effective defense against the doctrine of equivalence generally consists in arguing that the doctrine does not apply because the claimed function is known from the prior art. But in this case it seems that the defendant did not rely on any prior art at all, which is why the court did not have to examine this particular aspect.
[…] The Xylomix shredder brochure intended for Rabaud’s customers, which was seized during the infringement seizure, highlights that it is possible with one rotor to rapidly transition between knives, flails or dual mode, and that the rotor, pictured as “3 in 1” is the only one “capable of addressing all market needs”.
As rightly noted by the first instance judges, the user who bought a shredder having a “simple” rotor can then buy knives or flails, which are sold separately from the shredder, so as to make it work in a dual mode and thus implement the patented invention without having a right to do so.
What I think is the most interesting question though is whether all simple rotor sales will be taken into account in the assessment of damages, or only a fraction of those. But this question has been left unanswered so far as the court did not rule on damages, an expertise being ongoing in parallel.
Fourth, and last, false marking. SEE claimed that, in addition to patent infringement, Rabaud was also guilty of unfair competition, due to various mentions in their commercial brochures dating back to 2011. One mention in particular was that Xylomix was “patented“, which was in fact not the case. The first instance judgment sided with SEE on this question, but the Cour d’appel reversed this part of the judgment. The reversal was based on the fact that Rabaud had filed a French patent application in 2009 and then a European patent application in 2010. The French patent was granted in 2014.
The bottom line seems to be that it is OK to put the cart before the horse and refer to a “patented” device when in fact the patent is still pending. Not that I would recommend doing so, though.
CASE REFERENCE: Cour d’appel de Paris, Pôle 5, chambre 1, May 17, 2016, Rabaud v. Société d’Equipements pour l’Environnement, RG No.14/10335.
There is nothing like home-made food. Unfortunately, it seems like kitchens are never roomy enough to accommodate all those nice and fancy appliances for making soups, ice creams, bread, fondue and all that jazz. But as far as courtrooms go, some extra space can always be found for new kitchen appliance lawsuits.
In two previous posts, I discussed a case brought by Vorwerk & Co. Interholding GmbH against various companies responsible for the marketing of food processors of the MyCook brand in France. This case was indeed a good example of how patent infringement damages can be computed in our country.
It turns out that another case was also brought in parallel by the same company, based on the same patent, against other defendants (Guy Demarle Grand Public SAS et al.) responsible for the marketing of another food processor branded as Cook’in. Cook’in was held by the Paris Tribunal de Grande Instance (TGI) as infringing Vorwerk’s patent, just like MyCook – although readers may recall that the appeal judgment on the merits in the MyCook case was set aside by the Cour de Cassation for procedural reasons, so that the Cour d’appel will have to reconsider the issue afresh.
The reasoning adopted by the TGI on the question of infringement in the Cook’in case is very similar to that previously adopted by the TGI and the Cour d’appel in the MyCook case. So, in a way, the recent Cook’in TGI decision is not really surprising; but the decision is a very interesting example of how the doctrine of equivalence is applied in France.
According to well-established case law, two technical means are deemed equivalent if they are of a different form, but perform a same function for a similar result. An additional condition is that the function in question must be protectable.
Kitchen machine with a stirrer vessel and a drive for an agitator in the stirrer vessel, wherein the stirrer vessel in its lower region can be heated up, wherein the stirrer vessel is covered by an inserted lid, characterised in that on the inserted lid is arranged a top piece which has a perforated bottom for preparation by steaming of foods, wherein the perforations are formed in a cooking material support of the bottom of the top piece and condensate or moisture formed is conducted back into the stirrer vessel.
The Cook’in machine of the defendants differs from the kitchen machine of the patent in that it does not comprise a lid between the stirrer vessel and the perforated element for steam cooking. This latter element comprises a flange in its lower part on which a seal is arranged, which makes it possible to directly attach it on the stirrer vessel.
[…] Even though the Cook’in machine does not have the insertable lid as taught by claim 1 […], the embossed annular part of the vapor bowl associated with the seal disposed on the periphery provides a means of a [different] form which has the same function, namely ensuring that the cap is above the stirrer vessel, for the same result, i.e. making vapors rise from the stirrer vessel to the upper part of the cap through the dedicated openings and reintroducing the condensates into the stirrer vessel.
Various arguments were put forward by the defendants in order to show that the Cook’in apparatus did not operate in the same way as the claimed invention, but those were not deemed persuasive by the court.
The defendants also argued that the “inserted lid” feature in claim 1 was an essential feature of the invention which necessarily had to be reproduced in order for the patent to be infringed.
Vorwerk modified its claim by adding a lid, and the EPO examiner considered that the arrangement of the steam cooking container over the lid was a novel and inventive arrangement.
Nevertheless, such novelty and inventiveness were acknowledged relative to a prior art where the pierced basket for steam cooking was positioned below the lid.
Therefore, what was considered as novel and inventive was not so much the presence of the lid, but rather the fact that the steam cooking part was positioned above the stirrer and heating vessel.
Thus, the scope of claim 1 does not prevent a possible infringement despite the absence of the intermediate lid, if it is established that the means of the Cook’in machine have the same functions for the same result as those of the patent.
The analysis made by the court here relates to the second part of the equivalence test set forth above, i.e. whether the function of the equivalent means was “protectable“. In the present case, it seems that the function was protectable because the general idea of having a steam cooking recipient arranged above a stirrer vessel was a novel and inventive concept.
There are some devices in which the presence of a lid is absolutly essential.
The bottom line of the court’s approach (which is indeed the traditional approach in France) is therefore to assess what the contribution of the invention to the art really is about. A third party’s product implementing the same inventive concept in a different manner will be held infringing, irrespective of the exact claim wording selected by the drafter.
Another interesting point to note about this decision is the computation of damages. Contrary to the parallel Vorwerk v. Taurus litigation, the court (in a different composition) did not appoint an expert but directly proceeded with the assessment of damages. The result of this assessment was similar but not exactly identical to the one made in Vorwerk v. Taurus.
The main point which was discussed was, again, the rate of the indemnifying royalty to be applied. The court was apparently unconvinced by the submissions of either party in this respect and therefore they preferred to rely on the expert’s report from the other case. Although the defendants were different and the infringing device was different, the rationale for determining the proper rate could indeed be applied in a similar manner.
In view of the above, in view of the profits made by the defendants, of the advantageous economic situation of [the defendants] due to the marketing of the patented invention without a license, the court can assess the harm suffered without granting the request for additional information, and the indemnifying royalty rate should be fixed to 4%.
This figure of 4% does not correspond to any of the three options proposed by the expert in Vorwerk v. Taurus, although it is indeed within the expert’s range. But, more importantly, this is not the same figure as the one selected by the court in Vorwerk v. Taurus where a rate of 3% was ultimately chosen by the court! (Again, the composition of the court was different.) Unfortunately, there is no explanation as to why the Cook’in infringement is worth one third more than the MyCook infringement.
At the very least, this inconsistency should be a reminder that courts have a fairly wide discretionary power when it comes to determining the quantum of damages.
CASE REFERENCE: Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris, 3ème chambre, 4ème section, July 2, 2015, Vorwerk & Co. Interholding GmbH v. SAS Guy Demarle Public et al., RG No. 12/11488.

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