Patent case against highways firm (3)

(ANSA) - Florence, April 10 - Italian highways company Società Autostrade said Tuesday that it will replace devises for an electronic speed-monitoring system on its network after a ruling that it had breached the patent of a small Tuscan firm by using them. A Rome court ordered Società Autostrade to remove the devices and destroy them due to a breach of the patent filed by the Craft firm of Greve in Chianti in case that started in 2006.
    The judges also ordered the company to pay Craft 500 euros for every day it fails to apply the ruling.
    Società Autostrade said the devices will not be immediately removed, but phased out, adding that it would appeal to the supreme Court of Cassation against the sentence. It said it would pay the penalties for failing to immediately remove the devices in order to keep the current system active while it replaces them, saying this should take three weeks.
    It said it had decided to do so "to avoid the cancellation of the benefits of the Tutor (device), which has reduced the number of deaths on the motorway network by 70%".