As we approach 18 months since the UPC opened its doors and the festive season, we thought this would be a good time to offer our readers the chance to showcase their UPC knowledge by participating in the Kluwer UPC Christmas Quiz. We have set 20 questions with multiple choice answers. Please submit your answers…
A recent decision from Joanna Smith J dealing with the costs of a withdrawn application in a case before the English Patents Court contains an important postscript and suggests that the rules in the Patents Court Guide regarding the lodging and filing of skeleton arguments need to be revisited. All English patent litigators, and many…
On 17 April 2024, the Court of Appeal of the UPC handed down its decision concerning the language of proceedings in the (undoubtedly ground-breaking) case of Curio Bioscience v 10x Genomics. Curio had applied in January to have the language of proceedings changed from German to English, but their application was rejected in February at…
On 23 April 2024, the Court of Appeal handed down its judgment in the appeal arising from the January 2023 decision of Meade J in AIM v Supponor [2023] EWHC 164 (Pat). AIM is the proprietor of EP (UK) 3 295 663, which relates to technology that allows TV broadcasters of live events to superimpose…
Introduction It is common for parties to English patent litigation to settle their differences after the first instance judgment on the merits from the Court. This is for several reasons including the thoroughness of the Patents Court Judges, the Court of Appeal’s approach to issues such as obviousness (where only an error of principle will…
A short but nevertheless interesting judgment was handed down last week on the different roles that technical experts on the one hand and scientific advisers on the other have to play in proceedings in the English Patents Court. The decision of Mellor J followed a case management conference in an entitlement dispute between Dr Vanessa…
It took longer to arrive than expected but here it is. The UK Courts have been given an opportunity to depart from the jurisprudence of the CJEU in their interpretation of the SPC Regulation. The opportunity has arisen in the following way. In December 2023 the English High Court dismissed an appeal by Merck against…
A number of recent decisions have highlighted the risks that can arise from the practice of supplying draft judgments to litigants and their advisers under an embargo. The courts have made it clear that a breach of embargo is to be treated seriously, and failure to comply with an embargo may result in proceedings for…
SPCs are often valuable and therefore important to their proprietors. Indeed, such is the potential value of an additional period of exclusivity, that in the last decade or so, we have seen SPCs challenged where only a few weeks or even a few days of the SPC term remain. It is therefore hardly surprising, especially…
In undoubtedly one of the most important decisions of the year so far, on 24 August 2021, the English Court of Appeal handed down its judgment in FibroGen v Akebia (FibroGen Inc v Akebia Therapeutics Inc [2021] EWCA Civ 1279), partially allowing FibroGen’s appeal, and so finding one of the ‘Family A’ patents, EP 823,…
