Patent law
Discount store in Barcelona accused: Has Lidl a Thermomix-copy built?
Since Tuesday have to explain yourself to Lidl because of a kitchen robot before the commercial court in Barcelona.
© Matthias Balk/dpa
Has Lidl with the “Monsieur Cuisine Connect built” an illegal Thermomix-copy? The Thermomix manufacturer Vorwerk accuses the discounters, and is seeking damages. But Lidl defends itself with its own resources.
Lidl made the Thermomix manufacturer Vorwerk illegally with a cheap kitchen robot competition? This was negotiated in the last days before a court in Barcelona orally. The Germany-based group Vorwerk accuses the discounters to have the device “Monsieur Cuisine Connect” the patent right is being violated.
The Lidl-kitchen robot can cost you actually almost everything the Thermomix can also, with the 360 Euro, but only a third of the price. And The Thermomix can look back on a 40-year-old success story. Against this Background, Vorwerk calls for a tenth of what has taken Lidl from the sales of the “Monsieur Cuisine Connect”. But the accused refuse and demand the cancellation of the Vorwerk-patent.
Vorwerk vs. Lidl: It comes to conceptual details of
In court, both sides submitted from Tuesday, experts of their arguments. It came to technical details, such as rotary motors, of concepts, and the question of whether a four-decades-old device that was so often copied, and improved, should ever rap on his Patent. The Thermomix is established for 2019 in its sixth Version and sold.
Vorwerk argued that the Lidl-kitchen robots possess the characteristics that are “literally” described in the Patent. Lidl, however, has a wider interpretation space game of this description.
How relevant are individual words for the verdict, it will show in a few weeks for the announcement. In 2013, Vorwerk was drawn, however, in a similar case before the court. At that time, the group fought against the Spanish manufacturer Taurus, also due to a kitchen robot and lost.
Sources:“taz”/”El País”
