German Appeals Court overrules District Court on infringement of SSH patent by Sony but grants a stay pending validity review

SSH Communications Security Corporation announces that the Oberlandesgericht Düsseldorf (Appeals Court) issued an order, in patent infringement proceedings brought by SSH against Sony, in which it held that Sony group company in Germany may infringe SSH patent EP 2 254 311. By this decision, the Appeals Court overruled the first instance decision by the Düsseldorf District Court (Landgericht Düsseldorf) from October 2016, which found that there was no infringement. However, the Appeals Court stayed the infringement proceedings, and the final judgment will therefore be pending until the result of an action filed by Sony with the German Federal Patent Court to review the validity of the patent is received.

“We are confident the German Federal Patent Court (Bundespatentgericht) will find the patent valid.” said SSH VP, Intellectual Property Erkki Yli-Juuti.

The exact schedule for the oral hearing in the case on validity of the asserted patent is not known, but SSH expects the result of that case to be available within a year.

SSH has a separate litigation against Sony in UK regarding the UK counterpart of the same European patent, where SSH has received permission to appeal the decision on invalidity of the patent. The UK and German litigations are separate, and the current result from the German litigation has no direct impact on the UK case.

In the US, SSH has filed a request for rehearing requiring reconsideration of certain parts of the IPR decision regarding SSH US patent US 8544079 as reported on April 21, 2017. Further, as reported on May 15, 2017, US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has informed that it will be granting on May 30, a patent on SSH patent application US 15/255,253, which covers commercially the same key functionality that is covered in the SSH patent US 8544079 which is subject to the IPR. The USPTO has taken the IPR decision on US 8544079 as well as all material presented in different litigations and other proceedings in different jurisdictions into consideration in its decision to grant the new patent US 15/255,253. “This new patent strengthens our patent portfolio in the US.”, says Erkki Yli-Juuti.