United Kingdom

Case Law, Equivalents, Infringement, Litigation, Patents, Procedure, Technology, Trade secrets, United Kingdom

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Introduction On 17 July 2023, the English Court of Appeal handed down its decision in a dispute between J.C. Bamford (JCB) and Manitou about the confidentiality of information disclosed in the course of litigation between JCB and Manitou relating to the validity and infringement of certain of JCB’s patents.  At the heart of the confidentiality…

Case Law, Litigation, Patents, Prior art, Revocation, United Kingdom, Validity

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On 18 July 2023, the Court of Appeal handed down its judgment in Vernacare Limited v Moulded Fibre Products Limited [2023] EWCA Civ 841, an appeal from the decision of Nicholas Caddick QC (sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court). The Court of Appeal, with Sir Christopher Floyd giving…

FRAND, Litigation, Patents, SEP, United Kingdom

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As many readers will know, Apple and Optis have been engaged in international litigation concerning Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) since 2019. On 26 February 2019, Optis filed an action against Apple in the English Patents Court for infringement of the GB designations of eight European Patents.  Following a finding that at least one of Optis’…

Case Law, Inventive step, Litigation, Patents, Pharmaceutical patent, Plausibility, Sufficiency of disclosure, United Kingdom, Validity

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On 4 May 2023, a mere two weeks after the conclusion of the hearing, the Court of Appeal handed down its decision in Sandoz and Teva v BMS. The appeal decision is centred on the question of plausibility and comes hot on the heels of the Enlarged Board of Appeal’s decision in G 2/21. Indeed,…

Patents, Prior art, Revocation, Russia, United Kingdom, Validity

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His Honour Judge Hacon handed down judgment in AutoStore v Ocado on 30 March 2023.  The case was atypical in that it had a split trial: the first part of the trial considered whether AutoStore’s patents (EP 794 and EP 027) were rendered invalid by prior disclosures made in Russia, the second part considered “technical…

Added matter, Amendments, Case Law, Infringement, Litigation, Patents, Pharma, Pharmaceutical patent, Plausibility, Revocation, Sufficiency of disclosure, United Kingdom, Validity

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On 21 March 2023, Meade J gave a bumper judgment in the revocation action brought by Gilead in respect of two of NuCana’s patents from the same family (EP (UK) 2 955 190 and EP (UK) 3 904 365, the “Patents”), which relate to nucleoside analogues.   Filling 102 pages, the judgment raises a number of…

FRAND, United Kingdom

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On 16 March 2023, the High Court of England and Wales handed down its judgment following the FRAND trial in InterDigital v Lenovo.  This is the second judgment containing a substantive FRAND determination issued by the English Courts and the UK remains one of the few jurisdictions in which courts can and have determined global…

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

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France, Germany and Italy are holding trilateral talks on redistribution of the competencies that were originally allocated to the London seat of the UPC’s central division among Paris, Munich and Milan. According to the German Ministry of Justice, a decision is expected shortly. A spokesperson told Kluwer IP Law: ‘Once an agreement has been reached,…

Case Law, Litigation, United Kingdom

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A number of recent decisions have highlighted the risks that can arise from the practice of supplying draft judgments to litigants and their advisers under an embargo. The courts have made it clear that a breach of embargo is to be treated seriously, and failure to comply with an embargo may result in proceedings for…

Exceptions to patentability, FRAND, Infringement, Prior art, SEP, United Kingdom

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Nokia v Oppo [2023] EWHC 23 (Pat) In a new development in the global dispute between Nokia and Oppo that spans seven jurisdictions across Europe and Asia, Mr Justice Meade of the English Patents Court has found that smartphone manufacturer Oppo infringes valid and standard essential Nokia 4G/5G patent EP2981103 on an “allocation of preamble…