Patent

The claimants and defendants co-operated by means of an exclusive patent licence agreement to sell flood defence products. They fell out, and the defendants made statements on their website and in a letter threatening proceedings. The defendants had applied for a UK patent, which had not been granted. The claimants sought summary judgment on its claim that the defendant had made groundless threats of infringement proceedings, contending that the threats were groundless. The Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, in dismissing the application, held that the defendants had a real prospect of establishing at trial that the sale of the claimants’ products between the date of the threats and the grant of the patent had infringed the first defendant’s rights.