The power of Dogger Bank Wind Farm

It is great to see the world’s largest offshore wind farm, Dogger Bank, now connected to Britain’s national grid and producing electricity for the first time, powering homes and businesses across Britain. 

The wind turbine to first produce power at Dogger Bank was GE’s Haliade-X turbine, one of the largest wind turbines in the world. Significant innovation was required to develop this turbine, including impressive 107m long blades, and GE and Siemens have in recent years been in a race to secure the IP rights for the technology.   

Following the GE v Siemens UK patent infringement case last year, in which Siemens’ UK patent (EP 2 657 519 B1) was found to be invalid and GE’s wind turbine not to infringe, GE was allowed to continue supplying its Haliade-X turbines for the Dogger Bank wind farm. However, unlike the UK court, the US court hearing a related action found that GE’s Haliade-X turbine did infringe Siemen’s patent, and recently doubled the royalty payments that GE has pay to Siemens -- GE must now pay $60,000 to Siemens for every megawatt of electricity produced by the turbines in the US. 

The US decision highlights the financial value that IP rights can generate, and the importance of having robust protection in place.