From the company name of an appellant alone it can generally not be derived that the appellant does not meet the conditions of Rule 6(4,5) EPC for payment of the reduced appeal fee. This applies even where a company name is well-known. Where it is not clear from the file at the end of the…
In the next chapter in the FRAND-related battle between Nokia and Oppo, Nokia tried to obtain an injunction in relation to Oppo’s sales through Oleading and Reflection. The provisions judge, however, found this case to be too complex, both because of the patented subject-matter and the FRAND issues, to be decided in the present preliminary…
In the present preliminary case a cross-border injunction was ordered by the provisions judge. He came to this conclusion because he found the product to be infringing (in contrast to a preliminary decision of the Greek court) and he found that the Dutch-based Pharmathen company was controlling the other companies in the group. Case date: 19…
In a case where the patent is not opposed in its entirety, the opposition being directed at certain claims only, and where the Opposition Division decides that all of the proprietor’s requests in relation to the opposed claims must fail, only the unopposed claims, which are not part of any opposition proceedings, are left standing….
Longi and Hanwha have fought several (preliminary) court cases, which eventually resulted in a (cross-border) injunction. An ancillary claim that was approved was a recall of infringing products. Longi challenged on appeal the decision of the provisions judge that recall would also extend to solar panels that were already installed, but the judgment was upheld…
It has long been held that a prior art disclosure of a chemical compound would disclose this chemical compound in all grades of purity and that novelty could only be achieved if the claimed level of purity could not be reached in the prior art. However, in the current decision the view that such an…
The present case relates to the admittance of a new ground for opposition which was raised during the oral proceedings before the opposition division but had deliberately not been decided upon by the opposition division. In the absence of a positive decision on admittance by the opposition division, the Board considered that the ground for…
Following nullity advice from the Dutch Patent Office, the Dutch administrative body for license plate registration filed the present successful nullity suit against a private inventor in relation to a patent for vehicle license plates with a built-in RFID chip. This case demonstrates the disadvantages of the Dutch registration patent system which can allow the…
1. The established approach of applying the due-care criterion to the question of removal of the cause of non-compliance under Rule 136 EPC leads to an additional admissibility requirement, by expanding the scope of the substantive due-care criterion, which has no basis in the EPC. 2. Removal of the cause of non-compliance is a question…
In a new chapter of the ongoing saga of Sisvel’s 4G patents against (mainly Chinese) infringers, the present interlocutory decision shows that the procedural attitude of a defendant (in the present case Wiko) may be very important and can influence the court’s decision. Case date: 21 April 2021 Case number: C/09/583227 / HA ZA 19-1162 Court: District…
