Continental wins tyre design complaint against wholesaler Heuver

A German court has ruled that certain Aeolus truck tyres infringe an EU design patent held by Continental. The matter has been resolved by an out-of-court settlement that covers damages and a recall of the products in question.

In a press release issued today, Continental shares details of the ruling made by the Hamburg Regional Court (Landgericht) in December 2018. The ruling pertains to a complaint that Continental filed some two years earlier concerning the Aeolus ATR 33 and Neo Allroads T+ truck tyres. The basis of the complaint was the similarity of the tyres’ tread pattern with that of the Continental HTR 2 range, a pattern protected by an EU registered Community design.

The defendant in the case was Heuver Bandengroothandel B.V., the Netherlands-based wholesaler that advertises and distributes the Aeolus truck tyre range in numerous EU markets. Continental demanded Heuver stop selling the tyres in question and sought damages as well as a recall of tyres already sold. After the ruling, Heuver and Continental reached an out-of-court settlement that includes the claims listed by Continental in the ruling.

“We continually invest significantly in research and development to be able to offer our customers innovative and high-performance products,” says Constantin Batsch, who is responsible for Continental’s truck tyre replacement market in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. “Continental accordingly takes any unauthorised use of our patents, brands or other intellectual property rights or infringements of these extremely seriously, and will continue to enforce its rights by legal means in future.”