Anan Kasei Co Ltd & anr (appellants) v Neo Chemicals & Oxides Ltd & ors (respondents)
Tuesday 13 – Thursday 15 December 2022
By Appellant’s Notice filed on 27 April 2022 the Claimants appeal the Order of Mrs Justice Bacon dated 7 April 2022 and apply for further permission to appeal on the grounds previously refused.
Background – The case concerns a raw material used in the manufacture of catalytic converters for cars. Rhodia and Neo are rival suppliers to various customers, including Johnson Matthey (“JM”) who then go on to develop and supply completed catalysts to car manufacturers. Rhodia was (and is) a supplier of high surface area (“HSA”) cerium oxide products to JM, including in particular Rhodia’s “HSA20” product. Rhodia and Neo are the only suppliers of HSA cerium oxide material. The First Defendant (“Neo UK”) supplied, to JM in the UK, infringing samples of HSA cerium oxide (in 2011-2013) and initial quantities of infringing commercial products, “C100” and “C100N” (2010, 2014-2017). The admitted purpose of Neo UK’s supply of the samples in the UK was to procure from JM orders for the supply of much larger quantities of infringing product. JM used the infringing samples and initial quantities of C100N in the UK to qualify and gain approval by its customers of JM’s catalyst product (a “lean NOx trap” comprising a washcoat containing Neo’s infringing HSA cerium oxide and other catalyst components). JM agreed a technical specification for the supply of C100N with Neo UK in September 2014. Thereafter Neo UK contracted with JM to sell and supply C100N to JM’s Macedonian and South African factories where it was incorporated into lean NOx trap catalysts for JM’s customers. The issue at trial was whether Neo was liable to pay damages for the foreign supply of raw materials (which did not themselves amount to infringements of Rhodia’s UK Patent) but which Rhodia contended only took place as a result of the earlier infringements in the UK whereby JM’s catalysts were qualified and approved by JM’s customers.
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