Not the most common words to hear from your biggest competitor in the industry. But it happened in Munich this spring. At BAUMA, the world’s leading construction machinery trade fair.
One of our clients, a market leader within their business segment, quickly identified a suspicious patent infringement in a competitor’s stand at BAUMA.
A direct call to one of our lawyers with a vast experience in coordinating global Intellectual Property disputes for a multi-national Swedish company had an immediate effect.
- Wednesday morning a German colleague met with the client at the fair. Together they looked at the competing product and agreed that this was an infringement. As a consequence thereof a senior German attorney immediately started working on a cease-and-desist letter. This letter was sent to the competitor’s headquarters at 10.30 pm on the same day, i.e. Wednesday, April 10. The due time for response was set to 11.00 am on Thursday, April 11, i.e. the very next morning.
- The competitor, who obviously was well prepared for the infringement accusation, at 11.30 am the following morning returned a 24-page long letter claiming that the patent should be null and void and, accordingly, there was no infringement.
- However, already at 9.30 am when the trade fair opened on Thursday morning, our client checked the competitor’s stand and found that the infringing product had been removed.
Shortly thereafter, a top executive of the largest and very serious competitor came over to our client and thanked them for keeping the business clean by taking action against infringers.
This action then became the talk of the day of this years’ BAUMA trade fair and made our client’s name known throughout the industry.
by Maria Frödin & Anders Hansson
Maria Frödin is a Senior Advisor, Attorney at law, mainly focusing on litigation on patents, trademarks, design, copyright and marketing law. She is also specializing in contracts and international strategic advice on Intellectual Property. Maria held for several years the position as Senior Group Legal Counsel with a global business group, then focusing on coordination of multinational IP litigations. She is a Swedish authorized patent attorney and an authorized European trademark and design attorney, and she is a deputy director of the official Board of Swedish Patent Attorneys. Get in contact with Maria >
Anders Hansson is a Senior Partner, Head of Patents, MSc(E). Anders is one of the founders of the company. He has worked with the University of Lund and a major IP firm. Anders is a Swedish authorized patent and Intellectual Property attorney and he has a vast experience in strategic discussions and international patent prosecution. He is a member of SPOF, the Swedish Patent Attorney Association, FICPI, the International Federation of Intellectual Property Attorneys and AIPPI, the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property. Get in contact with Anders >