Companies are prevented from selling coffee capsules compatible with another brand.

Nestlé obtained a favorable sentence in an action to refrain from selling coffee capsules compatible with the Nescafé Dolce Gusto machine, against two companies that imported and marketed such capsules in the Brazilian market.

Decision by the judge of law Tom Alexandre Brandão, of the 2nd Civil Court of the Central Forum of São Paulo, who in granting an injunction in sentence, recognized that Nestlé holds patent for the invention of Nescafé Dolce Gusto beverage capsules, as well as registration of industrial designs referring to the configuration (illustration and ornamentation) of the capsules, duly granted by INPI – National Institute of Industrial Property.

Industrial property

The plaintiff claimed that the import and distribution of capsules compatible with the Nescafé Dolce Gusto machine took place without his authorization and in breach of industrial property rights regularly granted by the INPI.

In defense, the defendants alleged that the capsules did not improperly reproduce the characteristics described in the claims independent of the author’s patent and that there would also be no reproduction of the ornamental plastic forms protected by the industrial design records in question.

In the investigation phase, the judicial expert concluded that the defendant’s capsules have the same technical characteristics protected by the patent PI 0306852-8, as well as the same aspects of the industrial design records DI 6401024-4 and DI 6504212-3 authorized by the plaintiff.

In analyzing the lawsuit, the magistrate acknowledged that the defendants violated the plaintiff’s immaterial rights. Thus, it granted a preliminary injunction, in order for the defendants to refrain from importing and marketing capsules compatible with machines in the Nescafé Dolce Gusto system.

Partner Cláudio França Loureiro and lawyer Willian Lecciolli, from Dannemann Siemsen Advogados, sponsor Nestlé in the case.

SOURCE: MIGALHAS 03/09/2020