Yesterday, 25 April 2018, AG Wathelet has handed down his opinion in the Teva v Gilead reference (Case C-121/17) suggesting that the question should be answered as follows: “The fact that a substance or combination of substances falls within the scope of protection of the basic patent is a necessary, but not sufficient, requirement for…

Latvia has completed the ratification formalities of the Unified Patent Court Agreement by depositing its instrument of ratification with the secretariat of the EU Council. It is the 15th state to do so, after Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Sweden. Latvia will form a Nordic-Baltic…

For nearly a decade the Latvian regulators have struggled with determining the future perspective for resolving intellectual property related disputes before the Patent Office of the Republic of Latvia (LPO). Already in 2007 the responsible authorities identified several shortcomings in domestic legislation: among others, it became apparent that the disputes concerning appeals and oppositions brought…