Today, the High Court in London, England ordered to revoke the UK designation of the Fameccanica.Data SpA patent EP1355604. The patent relates to a diaper including side panels constructed from stretchable trilaminate materials made breathable by the use of ultrasonic bonding and to a method of making that trilaminate.

In response to the claim to invalidate the Patent by Curt G. Joa, Inc., Fameccanica applied to amend it and acknowledged that the patent should be revoked if the application failed. The High Court has held that the amendments had no basis in the patent or the application it derived from and dismissed the application to amend. The Judge held that the proposed amended claims would have made no sense.

In considering the applications to amend the patent, the court held that the invention that was disclosed in the patent and the application from which it derived involved the use of ultrasonic bonding to bond a nonwoven – elastic film – nonwoven laminate and to form holes through all three layers thereby making that laminate breathable. The court rejected Fameccanica’s contention that the patent described the formation of a hole through the elastic layer but not the nonwoven layers.