The Plant Nappy (TM)

Manvers Engineering’s website notes that ‘The Plant Nappy® is a new, light and user friendly method of spill containment; designed to replace existing, traditional drip trays. … Whilst encapsulating any drips or spills of oil the mat freely allows passage of water, such as rainfall, thus eliminating costly emptying of contaminated trays after use. … The Plant Nappy® has successfully achieved grant of patent and is now protected by patent laws.’

Manvers asserted its granted UK patent against Lubetech’s ‘Site Mat’ product.

In the course of proceedings, the UK court noted that ‘There was some limited evidence that a re-seller had observed oil passing through holes in version 3 [of the Lubetech ‘Site Mat’]. Layers with such holes in cannot, in my view, be regarded as "impermeable", which is the question.’  The court concluded that, with certain exceptions, Lubetech’s ‘products did not have the quality of impermeability in their base layers, and so for that reason too do not infringe [Manvers’ UK patent].’

This is a useful reminder that even an apparently lower performance product – in this case a mat where there was some limited evidence that a re-seller had observed oil passing through holes in the mat – can present significant competition.  In this case, the competition was sufficient to persuade Manvers to incur the expense of going to court in an attempt to enforce its patent and exclude the competition from the market.

This is but one of many ways of using intellectual property in engineering business.  You should of course seek professional advice on your own particular circumstances.