European patent EP 1 313 508 B1 claims the use of pemetrexed disodium in the manufacture of a medicament for use in a combination therapy together with vitamin B12 for inhibiting tumour growth. In the last six years, several courts throughout Europe have dealt with the question of whether medicaments containing a different salt or the free acid of pemetrexed infringe this patent by equivalent means. Most of the lower courts denied an infringement. However, the supreme courts went in a different direction: the UK Supreme Court (case no. [2017] UKSC 48, judgment of July 12 2017) and the Swiss Federal Supreme Court (case no. 4A_208/2017, judgment of October 20 2017) found infringement under the doctrine of equivalence. The decision of the German Federal Supreme Court (case no. X ZR 29/15, judgment of June 14 2016) was only concerned with one aspect of the doctrine. However, in light of this decision, the German Higher Regional Court of Munich confirmed infringement by equivalent means in its judgment of May 18 2017 (case no. 6 U 3039/16).
