Kinexon v Ballinno (UPC_CFI_230/2024)
Decision date:
30 April 2025
Osborne Clarke summary
- Kinexon filed an action to revoke Ballinno's patent for a method and system for detecting offside play in football. The patent is in force in Germany and the Netherlands.
- The Paris CD revoked Ballinno's patent, finding that claims 1 and 8 were invalid for lack of novelty and lack of inventive step. Claims 3, 7, 10 and 15 were also invalid for lack of inventive step.
- With respect to claim interpretation, the Paris CD decided that a general term used in the main claim is not limited to an understanding derived from a narrower or more specific feature disclosed in a dependent claim or description. A dependent claim indicates embodiments which may provide additional advantages. Embodiments generally serve to describe options for realising the invention and therefore do not allow a more restrictive interpretation of a more general patent claim.
- The Paris CD applied the problem-solution approach in its inventive step analysis.
Issue
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