Belgian Court rules against SARIN in the patent case

Belgian Court rules against SARIN in the patent case

The case was regarding OGI’s 3D diamond mapping apparatus (Rough Analyser) and laser marking device

A patent case opposes OGI and SARIN in Belgium since 2005, regarding OGI’s 3D diamond mapping apparatus (Rough Analyser) and laser marking device. SARIN filed a claim for infringement of its Belgian patent No. BE 1 014 912 and OGI filed a counterclaim for revocation of SARIN’s patent. An expertise was ordered by the Court of first instance and a panel of three experts was appointed by the Court. After a three years long expertise, the court-appointed panel of experts filed an opinion concluding that the technology patented by SARIN was obvious to a man skilled in the art in front of the technology previously developed by OGI (Rough Analyser + Marker).

After the end of the expertise, SARIN filed an appeal against the judgment ordering the expertise. In a judgment of 12 February 2012, the Antwerp Court of appeal declared that the expert opinion in its entirety could not be taken into consideration because the scope of the expertise as ordered by the first instance court was defined too broadly and comprised some aspects other than technical. OGI filed an appeal before the Belgian Supreme Court against this decision.

In its judgment of 6 March 2014, the Belgian Supreme Court followed OGI’s position and reversed the decision of the Antwerp Court of appeal. The Supreme Court decided that the Court of appeal was not allowed to set aside the “factual statements” and “technical opinions” contained in the expert opinion.

The case has now been sent to the Brussels Court of appeal and OGI will use this favorable expert opinion in support of its claim for revocation of SARIN's patent.


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