On 30 June 2010, the Supreme Court held that the ‘Bolar provision’ introduced by Law 29/2006, which implemented Directive 2004/27 into Spanish law, may not be applied retrospectively. In addition, the Supreme Court revoked the view expressed by the Court of Appeal of Pamplona and other provincial Courts, which had considered that the ‘Bolar provision’…

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University filed a patent application for a system and process for monitoring railway tracks by means of optical fibres. The applicant argued that, whereas document D1 related to railway monitoring systems using optical fibre sensors, the skilled person, being, as railway engineers, of very conservative nature, would only consider conventional electromagnetic…

SK Telecom filed a patent application for a system and method for financial transactions, wherein a user was allowed to load money in his account on a host computer. The examining division refused to grant a patent for lack of inventive step as the invention related to a straightforward technical implementation of an administrative banking…

In summary proceedings filed by Novartis, the Brussels Court of Appeal issued a preliminary injunction, enjoining Mylan from infringing Novartis’ patent for ‘pharmaceutical compositions for sustained release of Fluvastatine’, until a decision is rendered in the proceedings on the merits. The Court further held that the injunction will be lifted, if the European Patent Office’s…

This judgement is one of many issued in the worldwide litigation pending between Novartis and Johnson & Johnson concerning Novartis’ patent for ophthalmically compatible extended wear contact lenses. The decision contains a recapitulation of all possible grounds for invalidity of a patent. The Court rejected the detailed claims of invalidity for lack of sufficiency, dealt…

The Court of Appeal allowed Grimme’s appeal, holding that Grimme’s patent for an agricultural machine for harvesting and separating potatoes (from other materials such as earth, clods, stones, weeds or the like) featuring rubber rollers, was inventive. Of particular interest was the Court of Appeal’s clarification of the law of contributory infringement (s.60(2) Patents Act…

Vitreo’s patent application for ‘means for application of a vitreous body for the purposes of prevention and medical treatment of ophthalmic disorders’ was denied by the patent office, because the claimed invention was considered to be excluded from patentability both as a method for medical treatment of human beings or animals through therapy or surgery…

The Court of Appeal upheld the High Court’s finding that Novartis’ patent for ophthalmically compatible extended wear contact lenses was invalid for insufficiency. The Court of Appeal held that the patent does not teach which materials described in the specification are suitable for extended wear lenses, nor does the patent enable the skilled person to…

The Court of Appeal confirmed the First Instance Court decision and held that Occlutech’s devices do not infringe AGA’s patent regarding septal occlusion devices, which feature braided metal strands and have a collapsed configuration for delivery through a channel in a patient’s body. The Court held – with reference to Article 69 EPC and the…

The District Court of The Hague declares the Dutch part of Bayer’s European Patent covering Anti-TNF alpha human monoclonal antibodies invalid. The Court considers that the patent covers high affinity antibodies. However, the Court finds that such type of antibodies is not sufficiently disclosed in the patent specification, and therefore invalidates the patent as a…