LIDL wins battle to Vorwerk: Monsieur Cuisine does not infringe Thermomix patent

Vorwerk & Co. Interholding GmbH (hereinafter, Vorwerk), manufacturer of the cooking machine “Thermomix”, on June 14 2019, filed a lawsuit against Lidl Supermercados S.A. (hereinafter, Lidl) bringing a patent infringement action in relation to the patent EP 1 269 898 - ES 2 301 589 (ES '589) protecting technology consisting of a "cooking machine", alleging that the offering and marketing in Spain of a cooking robot under the trademark “Silvercrest” and identified as “Monsieur Cuisine Connect”, a competitor of Vorwerk's Thermomix cooking machine, infringes its patent.

The patent ES '589, alleged by Vorwerk, is the validation in Spain of the European patent EP 1 269 898, applied for on June 27 2002 and claiming a priority of June 29 2001. The application for effectiveness in Spain was filed on May 9 2008 and the translation was published on July 1 2008. The patent ES '589 claims the invention of a cooking machine including eight…