DÜSSELDORF COURT CONFIRMS VALIDITY OF NFM'S GRID DESIGN

Press release - Ski, Norway

The Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf has confirmed the validity of NFM’s registered GRID design. In its decision of 23 July 2026, the court dismissed the appeals of both NFM AS and Mehler Vario System GmbH and upheld the first-instance judgment in full.

As reported in our media release of 4 July 2023, NFM brought an action for design infringement against Mehler Vario System GmbH in Germany. In response, Mehler filed a counterclaim seeking to have our registered design declared invalid.

The court had to decide two main questions:

• whether NFM’s registered design was valid, and
• whether Mehler Vario System GmbH’s “Grid Carrier”, as exhibited at the Enforce Tac trade fair in Nuremberg, Germany, in 2023, infringed that design.

The court rejected Mehler’s counterclaim for invalidity. However, despite recognising that Mehler’s vest partly adopts the characteristic features of our design, it came to the conclusion that, due to the differences, the Mehler product exhibited in 2023 does not infringe our design.

NFM has invested significantly in developing its THOR® load-bearing systems, including the modular, scalable and transformable GRID carrier system, which is protected by registered designs in the EU and other jurisdictions. These rights remain valid and enforceable, and NFM will continue to protect and enforce them.

Source: Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf, case no. I-20 U 106/24.

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Media contact
‍Jakob Gjellestad, Marketing Director, NFM Group
jakob.gjellestad@nfm.no

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