A judicial and academic debate on standard essential patents (SEPs) in China has recently arisen. The issuance of anti-suit injunctions (ASIs) by Chinese courts in a relatively short period of time (between 2019 and 2020) and the ensuing TRIPS/WTO dispute between the EU and China over the TRIPS compatibility of such ASIs, exemplify such debate….

Since 29.04.2023, new Russian Patent Requirements (the Requirements) have been in force.  These include several amendments compared to the previous version of the requirements, including an amended provision on the rules for unity of invention. Clause 2 of the previous requirements stipulated that the requirement of unity of invention in relation to a claimed group…

In a previous post here, we described constitutional and procedural challenges to inter partes review (“IPR”) in the Oil States and SAS Institute cases taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court.  We also posted here on Allergan’s attempt to avoid an IPR by assigning its challenged patents to an American Indian tribe that claims tribal…

This question was tackled by the Full Federal Court of Australia in Kafataris v Davis [2016] FCAFC 134. The patent in suit related to an alternative manner of playing card games. The player could play a primary game while at the same time exercising betting options on a secondary or auxiliary game, either separately from…

According to a recent decision of the Administrative Council, from November 2014 it will be possible, by paying appropriate further search fees, to obtain searches of any claimed invention when entering the EPO Regional phase with a PCT application, regardless of which Searching Authority handled the application in the International phase. It will thus be…