Patent Law

Simon Watkins of Financial Mail writing at thisismoney.co.uk on July 12, 2009 states:

With his floppy hair and boyish grin, millionaire Richard Farleigh was the 'cuddly one' who used to be in BBC Dragons' Den, always ready with a friendly word of advice and a chequebook to help out inventors and entrepreneurs.

But now the former hedge fund manager, whose personal fortune is estimated at more than £60m, is facing a rather less welcome payout to an inventor after finding himself on the losing side in a bitter legal battle over a high-tech patent.

What's more, the winner in the legal spat - entrepreneur Ronen Hazarika - claims Farleigh, who was axed from the TV show in 2007, was far from cuddly in his negotiations at the height of the battle.

Last week, the Court of Appeal backed Hazarika and his Neuftec company, ruling that Oxonica, a technology company chaired by 48-year-old Farleigh, owed hundreds of thousands of pounds in royalties for using a fuel-efficiency technology invented and owned by Neuftec.

Oxonica is considering whether to take the case to the House of Lords. It has already set aside £394,000 to cover the royalties and it has earmarked a further £800,000 for possible legal costs. The total is already dangerously close to Oxonica's bank balance of £1.6m.

Hazarika said he will now press ahead with a claim for patent infringement, which if successful could mean another seven-figure bill for Oxonica, which was once worth more than £100m.

Read the full article here.