Freshfields has won a Düsseldorf regional court patent dispute on behalf of client Moderna against German COVID-19 vaccine inventors BioNTech and Pfizer. BioNTech, represented by Taylor Wessing, and Pfizer, advised by Munich IP-firm df-mp, will have to pay “appropriate compensation and damages” to Moderna for infringement of its patent rights related to the mRNA vaccine according to the judgment. The damages have not yet been calculated.
BioNTech said an appeal to the European Patent Office’s Technical Board of Appeal is pending, however, and the judgment will “not change our unwavering and unequivocal stance that this patent is invalid”.