The Supreme Court of Norway has recently turned down the appeal against the judgement of Borgarting Court of Appeal in the case Pharmaq AS v Intervet International BV et al. The case was about Intervet’s patent on the virus included in a vaccine against Pancreas Disease (”PD”), a disease causing severe losses to fish farmers. The first Norwegian court decision confirming the validity of a patent on a virus has thereby become legally binding.
With regard to claim construction and infringement, the Court of Appeal found that the virus strain used in Pharmaq’s competing vaccine was so closely related with the strain referred to in the patent that the competing vaccine consituted a patent infringment and should be forbidden.
The judgement confirms that biotechnological inventions may enjoy effective protection in Norway in accordance with EU legislation.
The lawyers Kristine Schei and Harald Irgens-Jensen in Thommessen’s Life Science Group successfully pleaded the case for Intervet.
A translation of the judgement can be found here.