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In a decision handed down on October 23, 2013, the Polish Supreme Court confirmed that the Bolar exemption does not cover activities by third-party manufacturers, i.e. supplying active ingredients for studies and trials to be conducted by third-party generic manufacturers (court docket: IV CSK 92/13). Parallel proceedings in Germany are pending. We have reported before…
by Stephan von Petersdorff-Campen Under section 7 (1) of the Law on Employee Inventions (ArbErfG), all the rights in an invention made by an employee in the context of his employment relationship pass to the employer by virtue of law as soon as the employer announces his claim to the invention. With its “Initialidee” (Initial…
In my August post reported here, I mentioned that the skirmish between Resolution and Lundbeck regarding the validity of Lundbeck’s SPC for escitalopram is scheduled to be heard in the English Patents Court next month. Readers may recall that Arnold J dismissed Lundbeck’s application for summary judgment and that the Court of Appeal upheld his…
On October 23, 2014, U.S. Congressman Goodlatte (R-VA) introduced the “Innovation Act,” which is intended “to make improvements and technical corrections” to the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) “and for other purposes.” The bulk of the Act focuses on patent litigation, but it also includes significant changes to the new patent trial proceedings (inter partes review,…
While the preparations for the future EU Patent Package are ongoing, it may be useful to familiarize oneself somewhat with some of the key options that the new patent system will offer to its users if and when it has been enacted. According to Art. 3 UPCA the future Unified Patent Court (UPC) will have…
It is hard to think of a recent SPC case before the UK courts where the judge has not had to refer questions to the CJEU in order to either clarify the terms of the SPC Regulation or the CJEU’s earlier interpretations. This necessity has arisen at an early stage in an action between Actavis…
As the readers may know, what is referred to as a “protective writ” is an anticipatory defensive mechanism that a person that fears to be sued for patent infringement may use in countries such as Germany, the Netherlands or Belgium to put Courts on notice of the non-infringement arguments relied on by the hypothetical future…
In its decision “Fahrradkurbeleinheit” (“bike crank assembly”) the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf has lifted an injunction by the Regional Court of Düsseldorf on appeal (OLG Düsseldorf, I-2 U 78/12, 20 June 2013). Contrary to the first instance the court did not find for patent infringement. Questions of literal and equivalent infringement have been discussed…
In Medeva (C-322/10 of 24 November 2011) the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) had ruled that a Supplementary Protection Certificate relating to a combination of active ingredients can only be granted in view of Art. 3(a) of the Regulation (EC) No. 469/2009, if the active ingredients are “specified” in the wording of…
Ex parte measures are rather difficult to obtain in patent matters in Switzerland (except from evidence-protection measures). Nevertheless, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court had the opportunity to opine on this subject in a recent decision dated 21 August 2013. Although this case will become better known because it was the first time that the first…
