A panel of the Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBA) of the EPO rejected a request to replace the EBA chairman for suspected partiality. The reasons for allowing such a request in decision R19/12 had since been removed because the chairman had discontinued all his managerial activities in the senior management committees of the EPO. Under…

The Bundesgerichtshof (German Federal Court of Justice) in the decision Audiosignalcodierung (judgement of 3 February 2015, X ZR 69/13) confirmed the principle established in the Bundesgerichtshof decision Funkuhr II, according to which the delivery of a product to a third party in a territory outside of Germany constitutes a patent infringement in Germany if the…

Myles Jelf (Bristows LLP) talks about the difficulty with software patents. The difficulty arises from a need to identify the dividing line between the pure algorithm which should not be patentable and a technical invention which happens to use a computer. There are three different definitions between the UK, EPO and theUS. The EPC Article…

Penny Gilbert from Powell Gilbert LLP explains the position of biosimilars in the pharmaceutical industry. Biosimilars are essentially generic versions of biologics. Traditional generic compounds are  chemical reproductions of the patented compound which makes regulatory approval more straightforward. Biological compounds (proteins or antibodies which are produced from genes) are not identical with one another and…

Adam Mossoff (Professor of Law, George Mason University) states that much of the focus in the USA is around litigation, but patents are not simply tools for litigation, they are commercial assets. Litigation is more public than confidential private transactions and therefore has disproportionate focus. He remarked that the ‘sewing machine wars’ of the 1850s…

A panel of international judges gave their interesting perspectives on the tribunals on which they serve and the cases which they hear. Annabelle Bennett (Federal Court of Australia) discussing case management in Australia introducing reforms to streamline procedure and how this has been successful (in taking some power away from the lawyers). In particular, she…

Dimitrios T Drivas (White & Case) gave the speedy run down on the following points and cases, which some might find useful for following up on points of interest: Supreme Court The decision that in exceptional cases reasonable attorney’s fees may be paid to the prevailing party (an exception to the rule that each party…

The Unitary Patent and the UPC in Practice Paul England (Taylor Wessing) described the infringement position under the UPC Agreement and the UP Regulation (1257/2012). He explained that there was concern that the UP Regulation infringement provisions would be referable to the CJEU which was seen as undesirable and these were replaced with Article 5(3). This…