根据欧洲专利局7月2日的裁决,奥地利化学公司北欧化工可能继续为太阳能行业生产POE材料。 拥有POE材料“Engage 8400”专利的日本化学品生产商三井化学公司提起了诉讼。北欧化工公司辩称,在三井化学提交专利申请之前,这种材料中使用的聚合物就已经在市场上销售了,根据欧洲专利法,这种产品是“当前最先进的”,因此不能申请专利。
三井化学公司辩称,未付出大量努力,即使训练有素的专家也不可能复制出这种材料的确切化学结构,这一论点在专利法中被称为“技术人员的不当负担”。
欧洲专利局考虑的是,如果一种产品的可重复性需要付出相当大的努力,它是否会失去“最先进”的地位。该局裁定的结果为“不能”。在专利申请之前上市的任何产品都有资格被称为“技术发展最新水平”,即使其确切的化学结构还不为人所知。该局还表示,诸如小册子等公共技术文件,也有资格作为“现有技术”。
该裁决驳回了三井化学公司的辩述,支持了北欧化工公司的观点。
这一决定可能会对欧洲专利法产生更广泛的影响,特别是在“现有技术”是否需要易于再现的问题上。
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.