(Bloomberg) -- Moderna Inc. scored a partial victory in its attempt to claim a share of billions of dollars in profits made by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE selling Covid-19 vaccine, after a London judge ruled that one of its two patents was valid.

Pfizer and and its German partner for the vaccine BioNTech filed a U.K. lawsuit seeking to invalidate two patents behind Moderna’s vaccine, Spikevax, claiming they had no novelty. Moderna also sued seeking damages from Pfizer and BioNTech alleging their vaccine Comirnaty infringed its patent. 

The two contentious patents behind the Covid-19 vaccine form part of a bitterly fought dispute in the courts of at least six countries. Pfizer and BioNTech infringed one of the two patents, the High Court judge said. Moderna’s second disputed patent was invalid, according to the ruling.

“The amounts at stake are very large” Judge Richard Meade said. The validity of the patents was, however, not impacted by the pandemic. “Both sides were guilty of using the events of the Covid-19 pandemic by way of illegitimate hindsight and I will ignore that.”

Demand for Covid-19 vaccines continues to decline with Pfizer seeing them bringing in $8 billion this year while BioNTech sold vaccines worth €3.8 billion (US$4.1 billion) last year, and will likely fall to as much as €3.1 billion in 2024. Moderna reported $6.7 billion in vaccine sales for the fiscal year 2023.

Pfizer and BioNTech said that both the patents are invalid and will appeal the decision that went against them, spokespeople for the two companies said in separate statements.

“Defendants were not entitled to use Moderna’s patented technology for any infringing activity after March 7, 2022,” Moderna’s spokesperson said. “We disagree with some other aspects of the decisions and will consider addressing those issues on appeal.”