United Kingdom

Case Law, United Kingdom

(Bristows)/

The UK Patents Court upheld the validity of Wyeth’s patent EP(UK) 2,343,308 relating to a combination product comprising a 2086 protein and a PorA protein used in meningitis B vaccines, rejecting GSK’s allegations of lack of entitlement to two of the claimed priority dates, lack of novelty, obviousness (both conventional and so-called “AgrEvo” obviousness), insufficiency…

Case Law, United Kingdom

(Bristows)/

The High Court has granted the Claimants’ request for declarations of non-infringement (“DNIs”) regarding several national designations of the Defendant’s European Patent for a pemetrexed disodium and vitamin B12 combination in respect of reconstitution of the Claimants’ lyophilised pemetrexed product when reconstituted in dextrose solution. The issues in this case were remitted by the Court…

(Indirect) infringement, Added matter, Amendments, Electrical Engineering, United Kingdom

(Bristows)/

by Naomi Hazenberg and Olivia Henry The Court of Appeal has handed down judgment in IPCom v HTC ([2017] EWCA Civ 90), the latest instalment of the long running UK litigation on European Patent (UK) 1 841 268. Floyd LJ, writing the leading judgment, allowed IPCom’s appeal and dismissed HTC’s cross-appeal finding the patent (as…

Case Law, Pharma, United Kingdom

(Bristows)/

The Court of Appeal dismissed Boehringer Ingelheim’s application for permission to appeal the first instance Patents Court decision that EP (UK) 1,379,220 lacked inventive step.  The Court of Appeal also considered and overturned the existing judicial guidance on granting permission to appeal in patent matters. A full summary of this case has been published on…

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

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Italy has ratified the Unified Patent Court Agreement. It is the 12th member state of the Unitary Patent project to do so. The instrument of ratification, the formal final step in the procedure, was deposited with the EU Council on 10 February 2017. The two chambers of the Italian Parliament had approved the ratification bill…

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

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The UK will ratify the Unified Patent Court Agreement (UPCA) in March, most likely before the Brexit article 50 is triggered. German will be ready to ratify soon as well, but will delay the official deposit of its instrument of ratification with the EU Council, with a view to the Court starting its operations on…

Brexit, United Kingdom, UPC

(London School of Economics)/

One of the most pressing questions that remains unresolved regarding Brexit and IP concerns a centrepiece of EU innovation policy – namely, the ongoing process for setting up a single unitary patent (the EP with unitary effect) and a Unified Patent Court (UPC) common to participating EU member states (including, at least for now, the…

European Union, Italy, Unitary Patent, United Kingdom, UPC

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Even if a way is found to keep the United Kingdom in the Unitary Patent system after the Brexit, it is hard to believe London can keep its seat of the central division of the Unified Patent Court. This is argued in an interview with Kluwer IP Law by Cesare Galli, president of the Italian…

CJEU, SPC, United Kingdom

(Bristows)/

by Steven Willis In a judgment handed down at the end of last week, Arnold J has indicated his intention to make a reference to the CJEU concerning the interpretation of Article 3(d) of the SPC Regulation i.e. the requirement for the marketing authorisation (“MA”) on which an SPC application is based to be the…

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

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Germany has resumed preparations for the ratification of the Unified Patent Court Agreement. A draft bill for the implementation of the UPCA was published on 9 December 2016 by Justice Minister Heiko Maas. Together with the UK, Germany is one of the two countries that still have to ratify the UPCA before the Unitary Patent system…