In a recent judgment of 2 February 2016, the Barcelona Court of Appeal (Section 15) was called on to interpret the scope of protection of what are known as “product-by-process” claims. One of the issues discussed by the parties was whether the scope of protection of claim 1 of patent EP 731.646 B1, which claims…
According to article 66 of the Spanish Patents Act, in case of moral damages the patent owner will be entitled to compensation even if the existence of an economic damage has not been proven. In addition, according to article 68 “the holder of a patent may also claim for indemnification for damage resulting from the…
As a foreign spectator of the litigation between Actavis and Eli Lilly (Alimta®) before the English Patents Court (the Hon. Mr. Justice Arnold), this author was fascinated by the ease with which the Court allowed Actavis to add endless new petitions to its declaratory non-infringement action (“DNA”), particularly taking into account that the DNA was…
The Spanish Patents and Trademarks Office (“SPTO”) has submitted the draft of the Implementing Regulations of the new Spanish Patents Act, which is due to come into force on 1 April 2017, for public consultation. In general, anybody familiar with the Implementing Regulations to the European Patent Convention (“EPC”) would not have great difficulty navigating…
In our blog of 31 October 2013 (“Groucho Marx, fairness and the opting-out fee“) we explained that Groucho Marx once sent a telegram to the Friar’s Club of Beverly Hills with the following text: “Please accept my resignation. I don’t want to belong to any club that will accept people like me as a member.”…
The Mobile World Congress (“MWC”) is one of the largest trade events taking place in Barcelona. Due to its importance, all relevant institutions, including regional and local governments, do their very best each year to help make the event as successful as possible. These efforts have resulted, for example, in the construction of a new…
As readers well know, according to article 56 of the European Patent Convention “an invention shall be considered as involving an inventive step if, having regard to the state of the art, it is not obvious to a person skilled in the art.” In practice, the application of this article requires factual and legal assessments…
On 30 November of 2015, the Barcelona Court of Appeal handed down a judgment which has further confirmed that a company outsourcing the production of a product to a third party is subject to the “strict” liability rule applicable to “manufacturers”, even if the actual product is manufactured by another company. This judgment has resolved…
One of the legacies that the year we are about to leave behind will leave us is the Judgment of 6 October 2015 handed down by the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) in Case C-471/14 Seattle Genetics Inc. v. Österreichisches Patentamt (“Austrian Patent Office”). The case had its origins in a request…
Andorra has a well-deserved reputation as a wonder of nature. In spite of its tiny size (468 Km2) it offers the best of both worlds: endless trekking tracks leading you to the most remote lakes and peaks in summer, ski resorts with up to 193 km of slopes in a single resort in winter and,…
