UPDATE: “On January 7, the Oticon vs GN Resound patent war came to an end with scarcely a shot fired. Settling a “slew of patent disputes” was good news for Big 6 bottom line solidarity and uninterrupted technological innovation.” —Holly Hosford-Dunn, January 12th, 2016, US Hearing Devic Patent Activity for November-December 2015.
DUSSELDORF, GERMANY — a default judgement against Oticon GmbH was issued today by the Regional Court of Düsseldorf for infringement of GN ReSound’s European patent on data logging, a popular hearing aid feature among hearing professionals that tracks a hearing aid’s performance in various environments.
An injunction is contained within the judgment, which covers the German hearing aid market and prohibits Oticon from marketing and selling any products which make use of the patented technology. The technology is used on many of Oticon’s products, including the Alta 2 and Nera 2, as well as the bone-anchored Ponto Plus and Ponto Pro devices.
According to the report by FinanzNachrichten, the court also ordered the company to:
- Pay damages to GN ReSound for infringement of the patent
- Recall all infringing products from the market
- Deliver up all infringing products in stock with the aim of destruction
- Reimburse GN ReSound for legal fees
Not So Fast, Says Demant
Following the announcement of the ruling, William Demant Holdings{{1}}[[1]]William Demant Holdings is the global parent company of major hearing aid manufacturers Oticon, Bernafon and Sonic Innovations[[1]] issued a statement and held a teleconference for investors and analysts.
“We believe that none of our products infringe the patent in question and that the patent is furthermore invalid due to prior art, including patents owned by William Demant in this field. Due to an unfortunate misunderstanding, our German attorneys failed on 22 October 2015 to make an appearance at the case management hearing regarding one of these cases and as a result, the merits of the case have not been heard by the court. Consequently, a default judgement was rendered against Oticon GmbH earlier today. The default judgement only relates to Oticon GmbH and not to other William Demant companies in and outside Germany.”
The company’s statement went on to confidently state that they do not expect the default judgement to impact William Demant’s financial results for 2015 or after.
The company has already filed an appeal of the default judgement.
Patent Wars Continue
HHTM continues to monitor this developing story and will continue to provide updates to our readers as they become available. For further information on GN ReSound and Oticon’s other battles over patents, see Holly Hosford-Dunn’s September 29th post: Danish Showdown: the Shot Heard Round the World?
