Hungary: infringement claim stayed following later patent challenge

In October the Hungarian Supreme Court ruled that, in patent infringement proceedings, a court must suspend the action if the Hungarian Patent Office has not reached a decision in subsequently-commenced patent revocation proceedings. In this case the trial court found that the defendant had infringed the plaintiff’s patent; the defendant appealed to the Metropolitan Court of Appeal on the grounds that he had initiated revocation proceedings in the Hungarian Patent Office. The Metropolitan Court stayed the infringement claim in a decision that was upheld by the Supreme Court.

The patent proprietor had emphasised in the appeal that the defendant not challenged the validity of the patent in the six years of infringement litigation and was deliberately stalling the proceeding. This was not however a significant issue in Hungary's bifurcated system for separating infringement and validity issues.

Source: Petosevic, citing this earlier post on the EPLaw Patent Blog by Eszter Szakács and Anna Sorosi ((Sár & Partners).