Win for Nokia and Cisco as Federal Court of Justice revokes Mala patent

The dispute centres on EP 2 057 796, entitled “point-to-multipoint functionality in a bridged network”. Mala alleges that Nokia and Cisco Systems are infringing the patent through their switches for LAN network architecture. The patent expires in June 2027.

Previously, the German Federal Patent Court had revoked the patent in May 2024 due to lack of inventive step (case ID: 5 Ni 23/21). Mala appealed against the decision. Now the 10th Senate of the German Federal Court of Justice, presided over by judge Klaus Bacher, has dismissed the appeal (case ID: X ZR 98/24), thereby upholding the first-instance decision.

Parallel infringement proceedings relating to EP 796 are pending in Düsseldorf against Nokia and in Mannheim against Cisco. So far, these have proved disappointing for Mala. After Düsseldorf Regional Court’s 4c Civil Chamber found in the first-instance decision that Nokia had not infringed the patent, the 2nd Senate at the Higher Regional Court stayed the appeal pending the Federal Court of Justice’s decision on validity (case ID: 2 U 35/24). Mannheim Regional Court had already stayed the proceedings at first instance (case ID: 2 O 20/23).

Germany and the UPC

The decision forms part of a wider series of actions that are also playing out at the UPC. At the European court, Nokia filed a revocation action against EP 2 044 709. In September, the Court of Appeal in Luxembourg ruled that the Paris central division must wait until the Federal Court of Justice in Germany has issued a final decision on a previously filed revocation action over the same patent. Meanwhile, the Regional Court Düsseldorf dismissed the infringement suit, while the parallel nullity actions at the Federal Court of Justice and the UPC action were withdrawn.

Furthermore, Mala also sued Cisco Systems at Munich Regional Court concerning EP 3 525 365 (case ID: 21 O 1882/23). In December 2025, the German Federal Patent Court upheld the patent in amended form in the first instance (case ID: 5 Ni 5/25).

Another dispute in the series between Mala and Cisco revolves around EP 3 512 131. In a ruling in February this year, the Federal Patent Court declared EP 131 as granted partially invalid on the grounds of added matter. However, in a restricted version, the court considered the patent to be novel and inventive, thereby upholding it in amended form (case ID: 5 Ni 21/23). In a parallel infringement action the Higher Regional Court Düsseldorf (case ID: I-2 U 78/24) dismissed the appeal, thereby confirming a first-instance decision.

Eisenführ for Mala

Mala instructed a team from the multi-disciplinary IP firm Eisenführ Speiser. In the nullity proceedings at the Federal Court of Justice, partners and patent attorneys Desiree Heintz and Ludger Eckey represented the patent owner.

Originally, the team also included litigators Michael Schneider and Philipp Neels. They led the infringement proceedings over EP 131. They both recently moved to Taylor Wessing.

In the proceedings over EP 709, Taliens represented Mala. Founding partner Thomas Lynker from Taliens’ Munich office worked with European patent attorney Thomas Kurig from Becker Kurig & Partner.

Nokia relied on its regular advisers from Bird & Bird. European patent attorney and partner Felix Landry led the nullity action with the assistance of counsel and patent attorney Leonard Lotz.

Munich-based partner and lawyer Boris Kreye is leading the legal side of the case, working with associate Lars Heßmann. Kreye is also leading the defence in the infringement proceedings against the client. Benedikt Walesch from Nokia is also working on the case. He recently joined the Finnish company’s in-house legal department from Kather Augenstein.

Bardehle Pagenberg represented Cisco Systems in the nullity proceedings as well as the parallel infringement proceedings. Partner Johannes Heselberger advised the legal side of the litigation for the client in all the disputes.

In the current nullity case at the Federal Court of Justice patent attorney and partner Nikolaus Buchheim and of counsel Johannes Lang led the case. Initially Sebastian Horlemann was part of the team. He has since moved, first to Simmons & Simmons and more recently in-house to Huawei. In the disputes over EP 365 and EP 131, patent attorneys and partners Christof Karl and Tobias Kaufmann as well as Michael Waschak, Marius Fischer and lawyer Ronja Schregle were involved in the litigation.