Munich court orders six months of coercive detention over UPC enforcement gamesmanship in silicone implant patent dispute

Context:

• Silimed Indústria de Implantes Ltda., a Brazilian manufacturer of silicone implants, had a distribution and cooperation arrangement with Polytech Health & Aesthetics GmbH, a German company that acted as its distributor and worked with it on obtaining CE marking for implants in Europe. That cooperation ran from 1995 until 2008.After it ended, Polytech filed European Patent No. EP2581193 B1(“Process for the manufacture of implants or intermediate products of such implants as well as implants and intermediate products obtained by such process”). The Oberlandesgericht Frankfurt (Frankfurt Higher Regional Court, OLG Frankfurt) later found that the invention belonged to Silimed and had been developed by Silimed employees who shared the relevant know-how with Polytech during the parties’ collaboration.
• Silimed sued in 2017 seeking transfer of the patent, accounting information, and a declaration of damages. After more than seven years of litigation, including a remand by the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Court of Justice, BGH) in July 2022, the OLG Frankfurt issued a vindication judgment on November 28, 2024 (case No. 6 U 79/19), ordering Polytech to transfer the patent and provide accounting information. The BGH dismissed Polytech’s petition for review on December 16, 2025 (case No. X ZR 111/24), making the judgment final.
• We  previously covered the dispute when Silimed became the first Brazilian claimant before the UPC (March 4, 2026 ip fray article). In a separate proceeding, Silimed also pursued International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) arbitration concerning misuse of trade secrets, obtaining a partial award in October 2022 and a damages award in December 2023.