UPDATE with quotes of the press conference of Michel Barnier at the bottom of this blogpost Will London’s pharmaceuticals and life sciences section of the Unified Patent Court have to be relocated post-Brexit? The EU will investigate this as part of the Brexit negotiations. This has been reported by ScienceBusiness.net. According to the website, the…

On 30 June 2017, the Danish Maritime and Commercial High Court issued a preliminary injunction against MBH-International A/S’ and its Danish distributor’s, OneMed A/S, import, offer for sale and sale of the urinary catheter assembly “Qufora OneStep”. Coloplast had applied for a preliminary injunction against the “Qufora OneStep” catheter assembly with reference to its European…

Preparations for the launch of the Unitary Patent system are progressing, despite the uncertainties and delays in the ratification process in Germany and the UK. The Case Management System (CMS) of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) will be ready ‘as of August 2017 and until the opening of the Court’, and tailored to prepare for the…

The European Patent Office amends its Regulations in order to exclude from patentability plants and animals exclusively obtained by an essentially biological breeding process. The decision, during the 152st meeting of the Administrative Council of the EPO, came after years of discussion and decisions to the contrary by the Enlarged Board of Appeal in the so-called Broccoli-II…

Chairman Alexander Ramsay of the Preparatory Committee of the Unified Patent Court regrets that a constitutional complaint has led to the suspension of the German ratification process of the UPC Agreement. In a message which was published on the committee’s website today, Ramsay states: ‘In Germany another layer of complexity has been added due to…

By Alan Johnson and Luke Maunder, Bristows There is a lot of talk about the consequences of an ineffective opt-out, but concentrating on this issue perhaps ignores a more basic one: can anyone even challenge an opt-out? For those who wish to delve into the depths of legal analysis, a treatise on the issue may…

Another significant delay – or even more substantial – trouble seems to be ahead of the Unitary Patent system, due to today’s decision of the German Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) in Karlsruhe. The Bundesverfassungsgericht has requested the German President not to sign the bills already approved by Bundestag and Bundesrat on the ratification of the Unitary…

The previously announced target date for the entry into operation of the Unified Patent Court, envisaged for December 2017, cannot be maintained. This has been reported by the UPC Preparatory Committee. Today, the Committee announced that the timetable which was published last March, was ‘relying on the timely finalisation of national procedures concerning the ratification…

ECC’s patent strategy not Swiss courts’ cup of tea Ethical Coffee Company (ECC) and different entities of the Nestlé group of companies have been involved in many legal disputes in various jurisdictions. The parties’ positions are normally as follows: ECC seeks access to the Nespresso coffee capsule machines for its biodegradable coffee capsules and Nestlé…