The UK has long been considered a favourable jurisdiction for pharmaceutical patent holders to seek an interim or preliminary injunction. In particular, from 2001 the English Courts have imposed an obligation for generics companies to “clear the way” (i.e. obtain a declaration of non-infringement or start invalidity proceedings in respect of any relevant patents they…
The Court of Appeal allowed Grimme’s appeal, holding that Grimme’s patent for an agricultural machine for harvesting and separating potatoes (from other materials such as earth, clods, stones, weeds or the like) featuring rubber rollers, was inventive. Of particular interest was the Court of Appeal’s clarification of the law of contributory infringement (s.60(2) Patents Act…
As previously reported, the Patents County Court was re-launched on 1 October 2010 under the auspices of His Honour Judge Birss QC. The issue of transferring proceedings between the Patents Court of the High Court and Patents County Court was the subject of numerous disputes before the Patents County Court before it was re-launched and…
The Court of Appeal upheld the High Court’s finding that Novartis’ patent for ophthalmically compatible extended wear contact lenses was invalid for insufficiency. The Court of Appeal held that the patent does not teach which materials described in the specification are suitable for extended wear lenses, nor does the patent enable the skilled person to…
In Grimme Landmaschinenfabrik GmbH v Scott [2010] EWCA Civ 1110 the English Court of Appeal stated clearly its support for judicial collaboration facilitating de facto harmonisation of patent law in Europe. The Court then interpreted the UK provisions on indirect/contributory infringement consistently with approaches taken in The Netherlands and Germany. The case in question concerned…
It is trite that in most jurisdictions, the grant of a patent is only a negative right, in that it does not give the patentee the right to work the invention, merely to prevent others from doing so. For example, the invention claimed may fall within the scope of a prior ‘master’ patent, of which…
When challenging the validity of a patent, a decision needs to be made early on as to grounds on which to rely. When it comes to allegations of anticipation and obviousness, the challenger and its advisers will need to consider whether to rely or just one or two prior art citations or to include a…
On 1 October 2010 the Patents County Court is due to be re-launched with a new set of procedural rules. The aim of the reforms is to provide a cheaper and quicker forum than the High Court for litigating relatively straightforward and low-value IP disputes. Hand-in-hand with the changes in procedure comes the appointment of…
Under the UK’s standard duty of disclosure, each party is required to disclose the documents on which it relies, the documents which adversely affect its or another party’s case and the documents which support another party’s case. In patent disputes, disclosure relating to infringement of a product or process can be avoided by the provision…
The Court of Appeal has held that the skilled person (which can be a team of individuals) may vary depending on the question in issue (e.g. obviousness, novelty, sufficiency or construction). The patents in suit taught the use of marine Controlled Source Electromagnetic (“CSEM”) surveying to locate oil or gas. For the purposes of sufficiency…
