Covid-19

Biologics, Covid-19, Inventive step, Plausibility, Sufficiency of disclosure, United Kingdom, Validity

(Bristows)/

On 8 October 2024, Mr Justice Meade handed down judgment in BioNTech SE and Pfizer Inc., (together, BioNTech/Pfizer) v CureVac SE. Meade J found CureVac’s patents, relating to split poly(A) tails in mRNA, invalid for obviousness and insufficiency due to (i) lack of plausibility and (ii) because the purported technical effect does not in fact…

Biologics, Case Law, Covid-19, Damages, Infringement, Inventive step, Patents, United Kingdom, Validity

(Bristows)/ /1 Comment

Moderna secured a double victory in the Patents Court last week (2 July 2024) in proceedings against Pfizer and BioNTech.  In the first decision, Meade J found its modified mRNA patent to be valid and infringed by Pfizer and BioNTech’s “Comirnaty” vaccine.  In the second decision, Richards J rejected Pfizer and BioNTech’s defence based on…

Case Law, Covid-19, Patents, United Kingdom

(Bristows)/

Damages enquiries in patent cases rarely make it to trial, let alone to the Court of Appeal, so this judgment provides important guidance on the assessment of damages for patent (and by extension other IP rights) infringement.   Background Anan Kasei is the proprietor of a patent to high surface area cerium oxide, a catalyst…

(Cross-border) jurisdiction, Covid-19, France, Litigation, Patents, Pharmaceutical patent

(Dhenne Avocats)/ /7 Comments

The news was announced last week: Moderna is suing Pfizer for infringement of two of its patents related to Covid-19 vaccines. These highly targeted actions are likely to spread to many other countries: here is a brief overview of the case and its potential French perspective. In a press release dated August 26, 2022, Moderna…

(Compulsory) license, Brazil, Covid-19, Legislation

(RNA Law) and (Licks Attorneys)/

In September 2021, Brazilian Congress passed a law changing the compulsory licensing landscape as a political answer to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Initially, Congress wanted to include new possibilities to issue compulsory license and tried to create a mandatory tech transfer provision that could severely jeopardize companies doing business in Brazil. In view…

(Compulsory) license, Covid-19, TRIPS, TRIPs Agreement

(Dhenne Avocats)/ /3 Comments

On June 17, 2022, WTO members adopted a waiver to the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) allowing suspension of patent related to the Covid-19 pandemic, which is the result of a year and a half of intense debate. Already there is a lot of alarm in the industry about this…

Case Law, Covid-19, Infringement, United States of America

(Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP) and , (Ropes & Gray LLP)/

As we begin year three of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rise of the Omicron variant has caused many workers, who had returned to the office during summer and fall 2021, to revert to working from home. This trend has further increased speculation that remote working arrangements will become more widespread, even after the pandemic ends,…

(Compulsory) license, Brazil, Covid-19

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The Brazilian President gave his assent to the bill introducing new rules on the compulsory licensing of patents, which facilitates the compulsory licensing of COVID-19 vaccines’ patents. The Brazilian President vetoed, however, certain key provisions of the bill, including paragraphs 8, 9 and 10 of the amended Article 71 of the Brazilian Industrial Property Act…

Covid-19, European Union, TRIPS

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Almost ten months after India and South Africa sparked the debate on the protection of intellectual property rights with the TRIPS COVID-19 Waiver (IP/C/W/669), there is still no consensus at the TRIPS Council in favour of any action. Despite the support of numerous other WTO Members, including the United States, the TRIPS COVID-19 Waiver still…

Case Law, Covid-19, Damages, Electrical Engineering, Enforcement, evidence, Infringement, Inventive step, Kluwer Patent Cases, Legal costs, Litigation, Patents, Procedure, United Kingdom

, (Bristows)/ /8 Comments

As many readers will already know, two new full-time Patents Judges have been appointed to the English Court in the last 9 months – Meade and Mellor JJ.  Despite the challenges that the global pandemic has brought, the English Patents Court has coped remarkably well and there has been no let-up in the progress of…