A long-awaited first ruling in the European Central Bank’s patent validity lawsuit against Document Security Systems Inc. was announced Monday—going against the local firm. The English High Court deemed DSS’ patent invalid in the United Kingdom in its interpretation of “added matter,” which the company’s chairman and CEO called a technical interpretation in the suit over DSS anti-counterfeiting technology used in the production of billions of euro banknotes. “Our shareholders should be aware that we successfully defended against all forms of ‘prior art’ and all other claims of invalidity where science and facts were involved,” CEO Patrick White said in a statement. “It all came down to the test where the court’s understanding of the scope of the disclosure of the patent as filed differed from the Technical Board of Appeal of the European Patents Office’s interpretation, which allowed the scope of the claims to grant.” White said the company is considering its options to appeal the decision but will continue to defend the patent’s validity in the eight remaining European national courts where the case also will be heard.