As many Kluwer readers will know, the last 18 months have witnessed a changing of the guard within the English Patents Court with long-standing first instance judges Arnold and Birss JJ being promoted to the Court of Appeal and their shoes in the Patents Court being filled by the highly respected patent practitioners, Meade and…
As many readers will already know, two new full-time Patents Judges have been appointed to the English Court in the last 9 months – Meade and Mellor JJ. Despite the challenges that the global pandemic has brought, the English Patents Court has coped remarkably well and there has been no let-up in the progress of…
Mishan (T/A Emson) v Hozelock & Ors [2020] EWCA Civ 871 Since Arnold LJ’s elevation to the Court of Appeal in 2019, he and Floyd LJ have heard about 11 cases together, spanning a mixture of areas of law, some patents cases and some not. In the majority of these cases, Floyd LJ (or a…
The English Patents Court has often been regarded as a relatively favourable jurisdiction for patentees seeking interim relief in the life sciences arena. This is for various reasons, including the fact that the English Court follows the approach adopted by the House of Lords in the American Cyanamid case, in which an assessment of the…
by Olivia Henry and Nicholas Michelmore On 20 April 2020, Arnold LJ (sitting as a High Court Judge) gave judgment in the case between FibroGen Inc and Astellas Pharma Inc (together the “Claimants”), and Akebia Therapeutics Inc and Otsuka Pharmaceutical Company Limited (together the “Defendants”) which concerned six patents owned by FibroGen and exclusively licensed…
by Ben Millson IPCom’s latest foray into standard essential patent litigation has reached a surprising outcome at first instance; its patent was held valid, essential and infringed in amended form by Recorder Douglas Campbell QC, sitting as a judge of the Patents Court, in a judgment dated 28 January 2020. However, Vodafone succeeded in relying…
by Sarah McFarlane As an early Christmas gift, on 18 December 2019, His Honour Judge Hacon handed down a judgment in the matter of Adolf Nissen Elektrobau v Horizont Group. This case concerned the field of electric road traffic signs. Horizont’s UK patent (the ‘Patent’) claimed a board to be mounted on to vehicles which…
By Sarah Blair This panel session provided an update on the current state of play of Brexit and its impact on intellectual property law. The panel’s moderator, Daniel Cheng Yong Lim (Kirkland & Ellis), opened the session by providing a brief introduction to the current situation: the UK is currently set to leave the EU…
Moderated by the Chair of AIPPI’s Biotech Committee, Dr Juergen Meier, this pharma panel session aimed to compare and contrast the protection available to proprietors of antibody patents across a number of important jurisdictions: the US, Canada, Europe, China and Japan. Echoing a point made by Sir Robin Jacob in his address at the Opening…
A judgment from Henry Carr J refusing an interim injunction to Abbott against Edwards Lifesciences was released to the public on 24 May 2019. The application related to Edwards’ PASCAL medical device to treat mitral regurgitation in the heart. PASCAL is implanted in the mitral valve via a catheter by a procedure known as TMVr….
