European Union

CJEU, Enforcement, European Union, Hungary, Injunction

(Danubia Legal)/

The injunction gap is a frequently discussed characteristic of those European jurisdictions, Hungary being one such country, whose  patent litigation systems are bifurcated. In a preliminary injunction proceeding in Hungary the court does not assess the validity of the patent in suit, at least not simply at the level of arguments, although decisions on invalidity…

Case Law, CJEU, European Union, Pharma, SPC, United Kingdom

, (Vossius & Partner)/

One of the features that render the European Union’s Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) unique in comparison to similar legal instruments in other jurisdictions, including the United States and Japan, is that there is no legal provision expressly calling for any specific relationship or agreement between the patent proprietor (and SPC applicant) on the one hand,…

Czech Republic, European Union, Unitary Patent, UPC

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The Czech Republic will not ratify the Unified Patent Agreement in the near future, even if the Unitary Patent system takes the hurdles of the Brexit and the German constitutional complaint. According to a Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) report on the impact of the patent package, which was commissioned by the national IP office, the…

Case Law, CJEU, European Union, Patents, Pharma, SPC

, (Vossius & Partner)/ /1 Comment

In the field of supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) in the European Union, the majority of all CJEU referrals resolved to date have dealt with the interpretation of the – presumably simple – condition that an SPC can only be granted for an active ingredient (or a combination of active ingredients) that is “protected” by the…

Brexit, European Union, Germany, Unitary Patent, United Kingdom, UPC

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‘Why Berlin can’t wait for Brexit in matters of UPC’, is the title of a recent article on the website of the German law firm Kather Augenstein. Main point: if the Federal Constitutional Court dismisses the constitutional complaint against the Unified Patent Court Agreement, the German government will have to finish the ratification procedure immediately,…

Case Law, European Union, Infringement, Injunction, Patents, SEP, United Kingdom

(Bristows)/

The Court of Appeal, overturning Birss J’s decision, decided that in the case of TQ Delta v ZyXEL, the answer was no. The facts of the case leading to this decision are somewhat unusual. TQ Delta asserted infringement of two patents declared essential to ITU-T standards. Following a trial in respect of liability, one of…

Antibodies, Case Law, European Union, Litigation, Novelty, Patents, Pharma, Pharmaceutical patent, Prior art, Sufficiency of disclosure, United Kingdom, Validity

(Bristows)/

Among the flurry of pre-summer vacation judgments coming from the Patents Court is one from Mr Justice Birss (17 July 2019), concerning the validity of Hoffman-La Roche’s patent EP (UK) 2 007 809. EP’809 is a formulation patent for the monoclonal antibody vedolizumab, marketed as Entyvio® and used to treat ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease….

European Union, Italy, Unitary Patent, UPC

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The future of the Unified Patent Court and the Unitary Patent system may be uncertain, it hasn’t stopped Milan from promoting its ambition to become the seat of London branch of the UPC’s central division, in case this will be relocated due to the Brexit. Later this month Milanese representatives will have a meeting with…

European Union, Generics, Legislation, Pharma, SPC

, (Vossius & Partner)/ /1 Comment

The legislative procedure introducing an SPC manufacturing waiver in the European Union has been completed today on 11 June 2019 with the publication of the corresponding new Regulation (EU) 2019/933 of 20 May 2019 (PDF) in the Official Journal of the EU. The manufacturing waiver provisions will enter into force on the 20th day after…

European Union, Unitary Patent, UPC

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Three years after the last recruitment campaign for legally and technically qualified judges of the Unified Patent Court, the UPC Preparatory Committee has launched a new round of recruitment for UPC judges. An announcement was published on the website of the Preparatory Committee (Prep Com) earlier today. Kluwer IP Law understands the Preparatory Committee had…