Germany removed a legislative quirk that made it a prime destination for patent litigators who increasingly target tech giants
BERLIN—Germany on Friday removed a legislative quirk that had made it a primewho increasingly target fast-growing tech companies.
Until now, patent owners were able to almost instantly obtain temporary bans from courts on the sale of products accused of patent infringement. That and a network of fast, specialized courts, had made Germany a popular venue for legal patent claims targeting international companies such as Apple Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google.
Under the legislation adopted by Parliament early on Friday, courts examining a patent claim will conduct a proportionality check to decide whether an injunction would cause “undue hardship” to the alleged infringer or any third party, such as patients who might be deprived of a certain drug or phone customers facing service disruptions.
If a court upholds the patent claims while rejecting an injunction, it would still have to order the alleged infringer to pay reasonable compensation to the patent holder. Such compensation should be at least the amount that would have been paid as normal royalties for the patent. It could rise if the infringer failed to conduct appropriate due diligence or fall if, for example, the court deems the patents to have been acquired solely for the purpose of extorting excessive settlements under the threat of an injunction, a practice known as patent trolling.
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