The Court Of Appeal Confirms That Retrial Is Not Permitted

Alcon has successfully resisted AP Racing's appeal against an Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC) decision. The case concerns Alcon's high performance brake caliper designs and technology.

The Court of Appeal has dismissed AP Racing's appeal of an IPEC decision and rejected its claim for patent infringement against Alcon.

AP Racing, which is a subsidiary of Brembo, owns a patent which claims the use of extended asymmetrical stiffening bands at the periphery of lightweight racing calipers. The stiffening bands are said to resist torsional forces and enable further lightening of the caliper body. In the IPEC Judge Hacon construed the patent and concluded that six of the seven calipers accused by AP Racing did not infringe. AP Racing appealed in respect of two of the non-infringing calipers. Judge Hacon's view of the patent was that it was unsatisfactorily imprecise as to how one can visually determine that a peripheral stiffening band is present as claimed, but that it was "just about workable".

The Court of Appeal, led by Lord Justice Lewison, dismissed the appeal in its entirety for the following reasons:

AP Racing conceded that it did not challenge the overall approach of HHJ Hacon to the exercise of construing the patent. It was therefore simply a matter of AP Racing disputing a value judgment...

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