No foam fight
The question of the perfect milk foam was at the centre of attention on 13 September 2023 before the Austrian Local Chamber in Vienna of the newly established Unified Patent Court (UPC), which has been in operation since June 2023. For the first time, claims arising from the infringement of European patents can be enforced before the UPC centrally and with effect for the currently 17 member states of the European Union.
Our firm, represented by the two partners and European Patent Litigators Dr. Markus Gangl and Dr. Florian Robl, was allowed to represent the traditional Tyrolean company Alpina Coffee Systems GmbH as the defendant.
This was the first ever hearing before the Unified Patent Court in Austria and only the second in Europe. In addition to various procedural issues, such as the validity of an opt-out after a lawsuit has been filed, and a technical demonstration in front of a large audience of experts, the case centred on the issue of infringement of a European patent by one of our client's products.
In the end, after a three-hour hearing, our arguments convinced the senate, consisting of Chairman Dr. Walter Schober, Maximilian Haedicke and András Kupecz, and the request for interim measures was rejected in its entirety (report on the Foss Patents blog).
Link: http://www.fosspatents.com/2023/09/upcs-vienna-local-division-demonstrates.html
