Case Law

Australia, Case Law, Litigation, Patents, Pharma, Pharmaceutical patent, Plausibility, Sufficiency of disclosure, Validity

, (Clayton Utz)/

Two recent decisions in the UK and Australia in the long-running pregabalin litigations demonstrate the different approaches in these jurisdictions to determine if a patent specification has sufficiently disclosed an invention.  Readers will recall that the judgments concerned Warner-Lambert’s Swiss-style claims for the use of the compound pregabalin (marketed as Lyrica) in the treatment of…

Case Law, Denmark, EPC, EPO Decision, Inventive step, Netherlands, Opposition, Patents, Switzerland

(Hoffmann Eitle)/ /12 Comments

The EPO’s Problem-Solution-Approach is, on the face of it, simple and widely applied also in the national jurisprudence of the EPC member states. It starts with the determination of a “closest prior art document” (CPAD) which is to serve as the starting point of the further analysis. It is then evaluated which technical differences exist…

Case Law, Inventive step, Netherlands, Prior art

(Hoffmann Eitle)/

Relevant prior art may prove not to be useful as a starting point for an attack on inventive step if the prior art teaching is negated by later studies before the effective date of the patent claims. In such a case, the skilled person would not have had an expectation of success. Case date:16 January…

Case Law, Infringement, United States of America

(Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory US)/

The same claims a jury found mobile carrier Sprint liable of infringing were later held invalid under Section 101 by the Federal Circuit in an appeal brought by cell provider T-Mobile. The judgment against Sprint had not been made final. Case date: 01 February 2019 Case number: No. 2018-1108 Court: United States Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit…

Case Law, Netherlands

(Hoffmann Eitle)/

In preliminary proceedings, the risk that a company will potentially suffer greatly as a result of the decision is a factor that has to be taken into account by the court. Case date: 28 December 2018 Case number: C/09/555970 / KG ZA 18-694 Court: Provisions Judge of the District Court of The Hague A full summary of this…

Case Law, EPO, EPO Decision, European Union, Novelty

(GJE Intellectual Property)/

This recent decision from an EPO Board of Appeal is a rather satisfying development in how patentability (especially novelty) of purity claims is assessed at the EPO.  This case may be seen as patentee-friendly, particularly for the pharmaceutical sector, as it likely extends protection for APIs.  It will become especially important to review this case…

Case Law, Germany, Infringement, Second Medical Use

(Vossius & Partner)/

AstraZeneca tried to enjoin Hexal from marketing its Fulvestrant-medicament in main proceedings (after already having failed in PI-proceedings) due to alleged patent infringement of AstraZeneca’s Swiss-type claim patent. The Dusseldorf Court of Appeal, however, dismissed the appeal (docket-no I-2 U 29/18). To understand the implications of this case, one has to first step back and…

Case Law, Injunction, Spain

(Clifford Chance)/

During the 2018 Mobile World Congress (“MWC”), Barcelona Commercial Court number 1 ordered a preliminary injunction preventing a company that was taking part in the Congress from continuing to market mobile phones that allegedly used antennas protected by patents owned by the applicant. The defendant lodged an appeal before the Barcelona Court of Appeal (Section…

Case Law, Germany

(Stellbrink & Partner)/

In a recently published decision, the German Federal Patent Court outlines in detail which aspects they consider relevant to arrive at a royalty rate (ruling by the Federal Patent Court dated November 21st 2017, published in GRUR 2018, 803). It is one of the rare decisions where a German Court analyzes in detail which aspects…