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Our client, BDH Tullford, are Point of Sale specialists, which includes pavement signs.
In this particular case, they had manufactured a sign for an ice cream company using their patented design. They received a letter saying that they had infringed two patents and asked us for help.
When we looked at the patents in question, we were able to conclude based solely on those and the content of the letter that there was clearly no infringement of either patent. We double checked with the clients and then sent our letter with our reasoning to the party who were claiming infringement.
However, the other side came back, maintaining that there was an infringement. We spoke to the client, added in some more details, and sent a second letter. But they came back again!
We decided that rather than wait and see if the other side started a High Court case, leaving the client in an uncertain position with the possibility of significant costs, we’d be pre-emptive, go to the Patent Office, and ask for a declaration of non-infringement of patent. This is something which is rarely requested, and does requires a number of steps to be taken in advance. However, we had carefully structured the correspondence with this in mind, so everything we needed had already been covered.
We submitted evidence that the product did not infringe the two patents in question, and that then meant the other side had to defend their position. There was a hearing in the Patent Office - by the time we got to that stage, the other side had already agreed that one of the patents was indeed not infringed, so there was just one patent still in question.
The Patent Office declared that the patent had not been infringed, awarding our client a declaration of non-infringement with costs to be paid by the other company. This gave our client the certainty that they can continue to sell their product, and the settlement was reached at a much lower cost to both parties (but especially to our client!) than if the case had gone to the High Court.
