EPLAW PATENT BLOG

EU – Solvay v. Honeywell

Posted: July 12th, 2012

Solvay SA v Honeywell Fluorine Products Europe BV,Honeywell Belgium NV, Honeywell Europe NV,Court of Justice, 12 July 2012, Case No C-616/10

1.      Article 6(1) of Council Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 of 22 December 2000 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters, must be interpreted as meaning that a situation where two or more companies established in different Member States, in proceedings pending before a court of one of those Member States, are each separately accused of committing an infringement of the same national part of a European patent which is in force in yet another Member State by virtue of their performance of reserved actions with regard to the same product, is capable of leading to ‘irreconcilable judgments’ resulting from separate proceedings as referred to in that provision. It is for the referring court to assess whether such a risk exists, taking into account all the relevant information in the file.

2.      Article 22(4) of Regulation No 44/2001 must be interpreted as not precluding, in circumstances such as those at issue in the main proceedings, the application of Article 31 of that regulation.

Read the judgment (in English) here.

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