The objection raised by the opponent that the protected subject matter of a divisional application extends beyond the content of the parent application does not represent a “fresh ground for opposition”,. This bbecause in the present case i.c. the opposition division hadhas earlier raised an unrelated objection earlier, holdinstating that the patent based on the…
The board addressed the public availability of publications on the internet, holding that direct and unambiguous access of a document should be possible in order to become state of the art. A mere theoretical possibility of having access is not sufficient, nor is retrievability by a search engine per se. A safe test is that…
The board clarified the non-public status of e-mail correspondence. The opponent asserted an e-mail from a third party to the opponent as part of the state of the art. It was not in dispute that both the sender and the recipient were bound to secrecy. However, it was asserted that the e-mail should already be…
The Dutch Supreme Court held that Art. 69 EPC in conjunction with art. 1 Protocol for the application of Art. 69 EPC provides a guideline for the determination of the scope of protection. Other “viewpoints” are the essence of the invention and the inventive idea behind the wording of the claims as opposed to the…
The Supreme Court held that Article 68 (3) IP Code relating to prior use, sets forth both a “quantitative” and a “qualitative” limit, in the sense that it “serves to identify the business behavior which determines the limit of the monopoly granted to the patent holder in respect of the prior user”. Since the prior…
Regarding the gathering of evidence in French and foreign territories, the Paris Court of Appeal affirmed the appealed decision and acceded to defendant’s reasoning in ruling that (i) the ‘saisie-contrefaçon’ carried out on French territory on the basis of two patents was not deprived of its valid basis by the revocation of one of said…
The French Supreme Court for the first time recognized, as a general principle of French patent law, the estoppel “according to which a person may not contradict themselves to the detriment of another person” in the course of infringement proceedings. Click here for the full text of this case. A summary of this case will…
The Paris Court of Appeal clarified the conditions to be assessed by the Court in order to grant an interlocutory injunction pursuant to Article L. 615-3 of the French Intellectual Property Code. A summary of this case will be posted on http://www.KluwerIPCases.com
The Court of Appeal confirms the revocation by the District Court of a patent relating to a coformulation of timolol and dorzolamide for the treatment of glaucoma , for lack of inventive step. The combination of these two substances was disclosed before the priority date as a concomitant therapy. The skilled person would turn this…
The presentation of a product at an exhibition within Germany, constitutes use of the shape of the product (protected by trademark law) in the course of trade for advertising purposes, and this is therefore no “offering” or “putting on the market” that product in Germany . Rather, evidence must be provided which shows that the…
