Court of Turin on the Doctrine of Equivalents: When Do the Equivalents Really Apply? Pewag Schneeketten GmbH v Transit Srl

摘要

In this judgment the Court of Turin decided that certain differences between what is claimed in a patent and what is accused of patent infringement cannot be considered equivalents. The Turin judges made a deeper analysis of the application of the doctrine of equivalence in Italy and then tried to apply it to the specific case, which is worth describing. The basic argument is that there are elements of the claim that do not accept equivalents: this comment will examine why that is, according to the Court of Turin, and considers whether this can be true.