Michael Conway appeared for the Claimant and Jonathan Hill appeared for the Defendants in a patent infringement and validity action. Only validity was in issue, as the Defendants accepted that their product, the Quinetic Wireless Switch, fell within two claims of the Claimant’s patent (“the Patent”). The Defendants counterclaimed for revocation of the Patent on grounds of: (i) anticipation; and (ii) obviousness.
The Patent, entitled “electromagnetic energy converter”, claimed a device for converting mechanical energy to electricity using a magnet and a coil of wire. Suggested applications included low-power electronics technology, such as radio sensors, in situations where batteries would be inconvenient. The user would generate a current by moving a switch to complete a magnetic circuit. The switch, being spring loaded, would then be pushed back to its original position and, in the process, would generate more current. This allowed the device to produce double the power, and was a technical advantage of the Patent.
Nicholas Caddick KC, sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, held the patent to be invalid and fell to be revoked. Whilst he found the patent was not anticipated by the two pieces of prior art (‘Goiran’ and ‘Harding’), and was not obvious over Goiran, the two claims in issue were both obvious over Harding. Despite Harding being an old patent (over 50 years), the skilled person would still read it with interest if, as he held it did, it related to the problem they were trying to solve.