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NL – Floration v. Royal FloraHolland (RFH)

16 Aug 2022

Floration Europe B.V. v. Coöperatie Royal Floraholland U.A., District Court The Hague, 10 August 2022, Case no. ECLI:NL:RBDHA:2022:8015

Floration holds EP 036, relating to a “Method for long-term storage or transport of roses or chrysanthemums, packaging assembly, container comprising packaging assemblies, and use of packaging assembly”. RFH has started experimenting with the transport of roses from Kenya in sea containers and, according to Floration,  infringed EP 036.

It is in dispute between the parties whether the RFH packaging assemblies comply with sub-characteristic 8.4. More in particular, the parties are divided as to what should be understood by the term “ethylene-regulating”.

“In the opinion of the District Court, Floration assumes too broad an interpretation of the term ethylene-regulating in the sense of sub-characteristic 8.4, and therefore too wide a protective scope of claim 8. RFH must be followed in its statement that a packaging with openings that let through ethylene without further measures aimed at regulating ethylene, cannot be regarded as regulating ethylene within the meaning of the patent.”

Floriation’s claims are dismissed.

A copy of the decision (in Dutch) can be read here.