The new and noteworthy decision T 670/20 by Technical Board of Appeal 3.3.07 provides more legal certainty for patentees of formulation patents. The proprietors of pharmaceutical formulation and pharmaceutical use patents do often not have it easy, if and when – as is often the case – they have conducted clinical trials before the priority…

Damocles, so tells us an ancient legend (reported here) was a favorite of President Dionysios II. of Syrakus in Sicily, who lived during the first half of the 4th century BC. His story was succinctly told by none other than Marcus Tullius Cicero in his tusculanae disputationes 5, 61–62. Hoping that Cicero will forgive me,…

Concerto Italiano – Preludio Johannes Karcher, acting chairman of the UPC’s Administrative Committee, is to be applauded for the interview he gave to the Kluwer Patent blogger recently, which sheds at least a little more light on the issues still to be addressed before the Unified Patent Court can go “live”. There are quite a…

The so-called proportionality defense according to Sec. 139(1) clause 3 (hereinafter simply “proportionality defense”) is one of the newest provisions of the German Patent Act. It has only been introduced in August 2021 through the Patentrechtsmodernisierungsgesetz, a typical German word monster, of which an informative summary was posted here. The main driver of this proportionality…

The Holy Roman Empire (Latin: Sacrum Romanum Imperium; German: Heiliges Römisches Reich, later: Heiliges Römisches Reich deutscher Nation) was one of the largest, most successful and longest-lasting political entities in Europe. Founded by the German Emperor Otto the Great in 962, who wanted to continue and revive the empire of Charlemagne, who in turn considered…

Even the best European Patent Attorneys may occasionally have to represent a client in an appeal case that turns out to be increasingly hopeless, or they are representing the patentee in examination appeal proceedings in a field where technology advances faster than the Boards of Appeal are able to deal with their cases. In such…