Bringing French patent infringement proceedings : how to obtain an interim injunction ?
17.01.1998
Is it easy to obtain an interim injunction ? If you can show that the infringement falls within the claims, will the court automatically grant an interim injunction ? Alternatively, will the Court also investigate other issues, in particular validity ?
Here is the translation of the corresponding article of the code : "Art. L.615.3 : When an action for infringement of a patent is referred to a Court of first instance, the President, referred to and deciding in the form of "référé" (référé = summary jurisdiction and procedure in matters of special urgency), may prohibit, as a provisional measure, under "astreinte" (astreinte = daily fine), the continuation of the acts asserted to be an infringement or may subordinate this continuation to the settlement of guaranties intended to assure the indemnification of the patentee.The petition for prohibition or for settlement of guaranties is admitted only if the action on the substance appears as being serious and has been taken in short time from the day when the patentee has been advised of the facts on which it is founded. The judge may subordinate the prohibition to the settlement, by the plaintiff, of guaranties intended to assure the possible indemnification of damage sustained by the defendant if the action for infrigement is later on judged as non founded." About the "serious" character of the main action, we can say that the Judge must find, in the elements of the case, reasonable presumptions of the merits of the case. The Judge will have to investigate, on the one hand, the validity or the scope of the patent, and on the other hand, the materiality itself of the infringement.
