Validity

In most systems, a patent is valid for 20 years from the filing date of the patent application. Patents are granted with a presumption of validity but no patent is safe from being challenged and declared (partially) invalid by national courts or, in the case of European patents, revoked by the European Patent Office. Often, a claim of invalidity of a patent is a reaction to an action of the patentee, in particular an infringement action.

Case Law, Infringement, Inventive step, Litigation, Novelty, Prior art, Revocation, United Kingdom, Validity

, (Bristows)/

Around this time last year, in Edwards Lifesciences v Boston Scientific [2017], His Honour Judge Hacon (sitting as a High Court Judge) had the opportunity to analyse two interesting aspects of UK patent law: (i) the law of implied disclosures and anticipation; and (ii) the importance of so-called secondary evidence in the evaluation of inventive…

Inventive step, Kluwer Patent Cases, Pharmaceutical patent, Prior art, United Kingdom, Validity

(Bristows)/

Last year, Actavis, Teva and Mylan (“Actavis”) sought revocation in the English Patents Court of two patents relating to tadalafil, which is sold by Eli Lilly (“Lilly”) as the active ingredient in CIALIS® to treat erectile dysfunction and pulmonary arterial hypertension. As is the usual course, ICOS (the patentee) and Lilly (the exclusive licensee) subsequently…

Denmark, SPC, Validity

(Bugge Valentin)/ /1 Comment

Just as the case has been in other European jurisdictions, Gilead is currently attempting to enforce its (Danish) SPC for the combination of tenofovir disoproxil (as fumarate) and emtricitabine in Denmark. In the first decision regarding Gilead’s enforcement of this SPC in Denmark, the Danish specialty patents court, the Maritime and Commercial High Court, turned…

EPC, EPO, Equivalents, Inventive step, Litigation, Novelty, Pharma, Pharmaceutical patent, Prior art, Revocation, Second Medical Use, United Kingdom, Validity

(Bristows)/

Patent lawyers in the UK have spent the last three months pondering, debating and at times indulging in an element of despair (to put it mildly) about what might be the impact of the judgment of the Supreme Court in Actavis v Eli Lilly [2017] UKSC 48 on issues of validity (see here). Today they…

(Compulsory) license, Case Law, Germany, Validity

(Rospatt Osten Pross)/

In March our partner Hetti Hilge reported on a preliminary injunction by which the Federal Patent Court granted Merck an interlocutory compulsory license for Merck’s HIV drug Isentress in the light of Shionogi’s Raltegravir patent EP 1 422 218 (link). The compusory license has now been confirmed in the second instance PI proceedings by the…

Case Law, Denmark, EPO, Inventive step, Novelty, Validity

(Bugge Valentin)/

Earlier this year, the Danish Maritime and Commercial Court rendered judgment in a patent case between Carl Freudenberg and Stadsing (SH2017.T-14-14S). Carl Freudenberg was the holder of a patent for a mop cover for a cleaning device (DK/EP 1 704 808). Stadsing conceded infringement if the patent-in-suit were held to be valid. Carl Freudenberg argued…

Case Law, China, Enforcement, Prior art, Validity

(Baker & McKenzie FenXun (FTZ)), (ZY Partners), and (Baker & McKenzie)/

The recent Apple v. Baili case has generated a wide interest in design patents. This article discusses developments on judicial standards for determining design patent infringement applied in Apple v. Baili, and some implications from this case. Such standards involve how to determine distinctive features, what to be considered to differentiate a functional feature, what…

Belgium, Inventive step, Pharma, Validity

(Crowell & Moring LLP)/

On May 9, 2017, the Dutch-speaking Brussels court of commerce handed down its decision on the merits in the context of an infringement action initiated by Orion and its exclusive licensee Novartis against Belgian generic company Eurogenerics. The proceedings relate to Orion’s European patent EP 1 189 608, concerning an oral three-in-one solid composition of…

Case Law, Denmark, Injunction, Utility model, Validity

(Bugge Valentin)/

On April 26 2017, the Eastern High Court of Denmark gave an interesting decision in a case between Orifarm Generics A/S and Novartis A/S, who is the holder of a patent and a number of utility models regarding a transdermal patch. On August 12 2014, the Maritime and Commercial Court had found that Orifarm by…

Case Law, EPC, Novelty, United Kingdom, Validity

, (Bristows)/

Given the furore surrounding Birss J’s decision on the non-technical issues in Unwired Planet v Huawei earlier this month, which included the first determination of FRAND terms by an English Court (reported on by my colleague Rachael here), it would have been easy to miss the first appellate Court judgment on the related technical issues…