News

About Egersund Net

Patent No. 334957 Belonging to Aqualine AS

23/01, 2017
In December 2015, Egersund Net AS petitioned for an administrative review of Aqualine AS' patent NO 334957 with the request that the patent be found invalid. The case has been under considered by the Norwegian Board of Appeal for Industrial Property Rights (KFIR). Today, the parties have agreed that Aqualine will waive its patent, and the case before KFIR will therefore be closed. This entails that Aqualine will no longer have any exclusive rights to solutions as described in the patent. Thus, other parties may freely offer this type of design in the market, including cage nets for these types of solutions.
 
The case started in August 2015 when Egersund Net received a letter from the attorney of Aqualine with the heading "Possible Patent Infringement and Trade Mark Infringement". "This was just prior to Aquanor 2015, and we were a bit surprised, to be honest," says Geir Henning Risholm, the General Manager of Egersund Net AS. "At the same time, we found the whole thing to be somewhat strange. Back then we were not aware that this patent existed. We believed that the patent only described familiar details of cage nets and fastening methods that aquaculture operators had been using for many years," says Risholm. "We were therefore of the opinion that there was no way this patent could be valid, and we submitted a petition for an administrative review."
 
Both Akva Group and Mørenot have been very helpful to Egersund Net AS during this process.
 
The Norwegian patent will now formally be deleted. Patents and applications abroad regarding the same matter will also be closed.
 
On behalf of the industry, we are happy for the result in this case. Aquaculture operators may now freely place inquiries for this type of solution with all suppliers.
 
 
For more information:
 
Geir Henning Risholm
General Manager
Mobile: +47 990 92 030
E-mail:  ghr@egersundgroup.no