Electrical Engineering

Electrical engineering deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism and includes control systems, medical electrical engineering, electrical energy systems, high-performance electronics, robotics, electric motors, digital and analogue circuits, circuit topologies, oscillators, amplifiers, filters, semiconductor components, silicon-based components, semiconductor systems, sensors, transistors, passive components, MEMs, smartcards, signal processing systems, digital signal processing, coding techniques, computer-related inventions, computer technology, embedded software, telecommunications, GSM/UMTS/CDMA systems and typologies, telecommunications coding techniques, positioning technologies, TFT/LCD/Plasma/(O)LED displays, Plasma physics, Solar cells, Semiconductor physics, Deposition techniques, etching techniques, thin film techniques, epitaxy techniques, Plasma processing, MRI, Thermodynamics, Nuclear physics, Nuclear energy, Nuclear applications in medicine, Geophysics, Aerodynamics, Sustainable energy technologies, Computational physics

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…

Electrical Engineering, Infringement, Litigation, SEP, United Kingdom

(Bristows)/

Whilst ostensibly a standards essential patents dispute, there have now been two decisions from the English Courts in this case both on the construction of a licence agreement under Californian law. These two judgments have come before any substantive decisions on infringement or validity of the three patents asserted by Philips against Asus and HTC….

(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…

(Compulsory) license, Electrical Engineering, Exceptions to patentability, Italy, Validity

(Trevisan & Cuonzo)/

By ruling of 21 February 2014, the Court of Turin decided a case between the US corporation Rovi and a number of Italian consumers electronics manufacturers. These had produced / imported set-top-boxes equipped with Electronic Programme Guides (EPG) that allegedly made use of the Rovi EPG patents, although without being covered by the Rovi licensing scheme….

Added matter, Case Law, Electrical Engineering, EPC

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An amendment of independent patent claim 1 during prosecution introduced a new feature. According to the Examining Division this led to the combinations of features of dependent claims 2-4 to extend beyond the disclosure of the application as filed (Art. 123(2) EPC). The Board of Appeal held that the focus of the Examining Division was…

Case Law, Electrical Engineering, EPC, Extension of subject matter, Procedure

(V.O.)/

The Board of Appeal ruled that color figures contained in the application when filed could be used as a basis for amendments. The board had to deal with the problem that no original copy of the color figures was available to the board. Therefore, the board considered it appropriate to compare sets of copies of…

Case Law, Electrical Engineering, Germany, Inventive step, Validity

(Hoffmann Eitle)/

When seeking to improve a data structure prescribed in an international standard, the skilled person would consider mechanisms already described in the standard when solving the identified technical problem. If the standard provides a manageable number of possible solutions, each having specific advantages and disadvantages, this provides an incentive to take each of the solutions…

Electrical Engineering, Germany, Inventive step

(Hoffmann Eitle)/

The German Federal Court of Justice recently issued a decision entitled ‘E-Mail via SMS’, November 22, 2011, X ZR 58/10, in which it was found that when seeking to improve a data structure prescribed in an international standard, a skilled person would consider mechanisms already described in the standard when solving the identified technical problem….

Electrical Engineering, Extent of Protection, Germany, Revocation, Scope of protection

(Hoffmann Eitle)/

The German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) recently further confirmed the basic tendency of bringing national case law into line with that of the European Patent Office. In the decision “Wiedergabe topographischer Informationen” (Reproduction of topographical information)BGH.Wiedergabe.topografischer.Informationen.X.ZR.47-07, the Federal Court of Justice had to deal with a method and device for the perspective display of…

Case Law, Electrical Engineering, EPC, Procedure

(V.O.)/

The Enlarged Board of Appeal answered the question referred to it by the Board of Appeal in J 2/08. The Enlarged Board of Appeal held that after a decision to refuse a European patent application, the application remains pending, in the sense that a divisional application can be validly filed, until the expiry of the…