An argument over a potato separator has been settled in court after a legal wrangle over its components.

The Court of Appeal has upheld the validity of Grimme’s UK patent regarding the MultiSep spiral segment potato separator and has confirmed that the sale of the “Evolution” potato separator in its current form by Scott’s Potato Machinery - managed by Derek Scott - are considered by the court to have infringed the patent.

The court has injuncted Scott from any further infringements and ordered him to pay costs and required that there be an inquiry as to the damage caused to Grimme or an account of the profits gained by Scott from the infringement.

On its website, Scott’s said: “Mr Scott remains at liberty to make sales of Evolution machines, provided (a) that the machines are fitted with no more than one resiliently deformable clod roller and (b) the sales are otherwise non-infringing.”

Scott said: “After a five-year long legal battle with Grimme we now thankfully have a verdict. We have ended up after appeal with a bittersweet result. Whilst Grimme have been successful in proving the validity of their patent, at the same time the judge has recognised that all Evolution separators... sold since November 2009 do not infringe. We are delighted that the judge has taken this view and that we also have our own patent granted for the Evolution separator last August.”

The appeal hearing took three days in the Court of Appeal in London.

Grimme said in a statement: “Courts in other countries, although not bound to follow this judgment, are likely to find the judgment persuasive. Grimme is proud of its strong reputation of technical excellence and has made huge investments into research and development, such as the development of its MultiSep Spiral Segment separator.”

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