In a post of some months ago, after noting that none of the torpedoes launched in Italy after the Asclepion ruling [Italian Court of Cassation, 10 June 2013, no. 14508, in Giur. ann. dir. ind., 2013 (for a full English translation, see IIC, 2014, pp. 822 ff.)] had been successful, we envisaged a possible end to the Italian torpedo story. A recent decision of the Court of Rome shows, however, that the end is yet to come. In a non-infringement action brought against an Austrian patentee (and two other defendants, also from Austria) with regard to the Italian part and several foreign parts of a European patent, the Court of Rome firmly stated that

“the Italian courts have jurisdiction … for the French, German, Austrian and UK parts of the patent, on the basis of art. 5.3, EU Council Regulation 44/2001 of 22 December 2000, whereby the courts for the place where the harmful event occurred or may occur have jurisdiction, and on the basis of art. 27 of the Regulation, concerning jurisdiction for related actions”.

The brief reasoning of the decision (full text, in Italian) exclusively stems from a quotation of the Asclepion ruling of the Court of Cassation mentioned above. With regard to this ruling and its impact on torpedo actions (as well as for a review of the most recent decisions issued in Italy on the topic), we refer to the considerations already made here.

Riccardo Perotti

Court of Rome, 5 February 2018, Anki v. Stadlbauer