Points of law: 1) whether compensation for the unlawful use of a trademark may be regarded as a penalty? 2) whether plaintiff’s expenses for court fee must be reimbursed to him in accordance with the amount of compensation he claimed for violation of his right to the trademark or in accordance with the amount that was actually awarded by the court?
Ratio decidendi: 1) the compensation in question is not a penalty; its amount may be reduced by the court if the amount claimed by the plaintiff was found to be unduly high; 2) the risk of such reduction of compensation should be borne by the plaintiff as a person who presented an unjustified claim, and therefore the part of the court fee which corresponds to the excessive part of his claim should fall upon the plaintiff and may not be recovered from the defendant.
Practical consequences: the Judgment says that prior court decisions in analogous cases if inconsistent with this interpretation may be reversed in the procedure and within the limits envisaged by Art 311 of the Commercial Procedure Code.