2026-08-25 - LD Düsseldorf - Versah v. Adin Dental Implant Systems et al. - UPC_CFI_56/2025

Für eine unmittelbare Verletzung eines Erzeugnisanspruchs ist entscheidend, ob die angegriffene Ausführungsform aufgrund ihrer Beschaffenheit und ihrer Verwendungstauglichkeit objektiv in der Lage ist, die Merkmale des Patentanspruchs zu erfüllen. When determining whether a product claim has been directly infringed, the decisive factor is whether the challenged embodiment is objectively capable of fulfilling the features of the patent claim, given its nature and suitability for use.

The Düsseldorf Local Division found direct literal infringement of a product claim to a rotary osteotome and dismissed the revocation counterclaim in full. Its headnote states the test for direct infringement of a product claim: what matters is whether the challenged embodiment is objectively capable, by its nature and its suitability for use, of fulfilling the features of the claim. The defendants' argument that their burs are only ever rotated in the direction in which the alleged cutting faces trail therefore failed, since nothing prevented rotation in the other direction and their own brochure warned that reverse rotation produces high cutting performance. On the pleading standard, the Court held that once the claimant has substantiated infringement with a detailed party expert report, a broad denial does not put the allegation in issue; the defendants had to answer with comparable detail, if necessary with an expert report of their own. Standing was established under Art. 47(2) UPCA through a chain of exclusive licence and sublicence, whose validity despite identical signatories on both sides was governed by Michigan law and unrebutted. On validity, prior art recommending a rake angle of about 0° was held to point away from making that angle negative, so the person skilled in the art would not, rather than merely could not, arrive at the claim.