Facts
- The plaintiff [X. AG] is the owner of several patents for the alignment of springs in spring core machines. - The defendant [Y. AG] manufactured and distributed spring core machines which, in the plaintiff's view, infringed its patents. - The plaintiff filed a lawsuit with the Commercial Court of St. Gallen, seeking injunctive relief, information, and damages. - The Commercial Court partially dismissed the claim. It denied a patent infringement by the defendant's modified machines, but partially upheld the request for information. - Both parties appealed the decision of the Commercial Court.Considerations
- The Federal Supreme Court first examined the legal validity of the plaintiff's patent CH [333.] , which the plaintiff had partially revoked during the proceedings. - It concluded that the amendments to the patent application, in particular the deletion of the feature of the "revolving bearing of the common rotational axis of the pair of rotary plates around a central rotational axis", impermissibly expanded the scope of protection and therefore the patent is partially void. - Regarding the patent infringement by the defendant's newly constructed machines, the Federal Supreme Court confirmed the assessment of the lower instance. It denied an infringement of the plaintiff's patents EP [111.] and CH [222.] , as the linear movement of the pair of rotary plates in the defendant's machines cannot be qualified as an imitation of the patented…