This case involves the Supreme Court’s decision on whether Virgin Atlantic was entitled to claim damages in respect of infringement of its flat bed airline seat patent. The patent had been held to be valid and infringed in the UK but had then been amended by the European Patent Office (EPO) so that it no longer existed in the form said to have been infringed. The court found that the previous case of Unilin Beheer v Berry Floor, which held that a patentee whose patent had been found to be valid and infringed was entitled to claim damages for its infringement without regard to the subsequent revocation of the patent, had been wrongly decided. A defendant which had previously unsuccessfully challenged validity should be in no worse position than anyone else.
For the full text of the decision, please click here