After a long judicial battle, also the Munich Court of Appeal (following the decision of the Court of Munich Court of First Instance I in August 2017) confirmed in a judgment issued on 7 February 2019 that the Tech-AirTM Street airbag Vest (for road use) and Tech-AirTM Racing airbag Vest (for track use and road), manufactured and marketed by Alpinestars, infringe the German part of Dainese's European patent EP 2 412 257 B1.
The information got to us through a Dainese press release. This comes after the German Federal Patent Court has previously confirmed the validity of this patent in separate validity proceeding; a decision which Alpinestars appealed. The now obtained decision by the Munich Appeals Court in the infringement proceedings is only appealable by way of applying for leave for an appeal to the German Federal Supreme Court.
The Munich Court of Appeal, with enforceable judgement with which it ruled in favour of Dainese regarding the core issues of the litigation, has issued an injunction:
1. Prohibiting Alpinestars to commercialize the Tech-AirTM Street Airbag Vests and Tech-AirTM Racing Airbag Vests in Germany;
2. Ordering Alpinestars to recall any such vests which Alpinestars has supplied since 1 July 2015 and which are still in the possession of commercial customers in Germany;
3. CompensatingDaineseforalldamagessufferedduetothesaleoftheinfringing vests in Germany since 1 July 2015.
This decision is a major victory for Dainese in an intensive patent litigation fought against Alpinestars in Italy, Germany, the UK and France.
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