Luxury fashion house Gucci has secured a rare patent victory at the Unified Patent Court (UPC), where the Court of Appeal defeated infringement claims and largely secured revocation of the patent asserted against it.
The decision, issued on October 21, revokes the patent in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Sweden. The patent, European Patent 3 388 490 held by Belgian imaging company Agfa, covers decorating natural leather by applying a base coat and then inkjet printing a colour image on top.
Agfa had sued nine Gucci subsidiaries over items from the Pikarar Collection, a collaboration with illustrator Angela Nguyen that included a mini bag and a sneaker with animal prints. In April 2025, the UPC’s Hamburg Local Division found no infringement because the accused products used an ivory base coat, which it considered chromatic rather than achromatic. It nonetheless upheld the patent as valid, and both sides appealed.
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On appeal, the court examined the claims that remained and found Agfa presented no conclusive evidence that the claimed polyfunctional monomers or oligomers were present in the inks used in Gucci’s products. It also found Agfa had not shown the products achieved the flexibility the patent describes, meaning no cracks visible under a microscope.
The Hamburg ruling was the first substantive UPC decision concerning luxury fashion, and Gucci’s counsel has described it as the brand’s first patent dispute. Few fashion houses have faced patent litigation of this kind, which makes a full defence win notable.
For brands and suppliers across the apparel, footwear and leather goods chain, the outcome shows the UPC will test patent claims closely against technical evidence. It also shows a single action can wipe out protection across several European markets at once, leaving Agfa unable to rely on the patent in those five countries.