Jurisdiction

Read all the (latest) blogs from:

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, EPC, Estonia, European Union, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States of America

Damages, Infringement, Japan, Patents, Pharma

, (Abe, Ikubo & Katayama)/

On May 27, 2025, the Intellectual Property High Court of Japan ruled in favor of Toray Industries, Inc. in a landmark patent infringement lawsuit (Case No. 2021 (Ne) 10037) concerning the extended patent rights for the antipruritic agent “Remitch®” (nalfurafine). The court ordered two generic companies, Sawai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and Fuso Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd.,…

Case Law, ownership, Spain

(Clifford Chance)/

Decisions in patent ownership disputes are rare in Spain. The last significant one was the 2022 judgment from the Spanish Supreme Court in the “Ecoforest” case. Now, the Valencia Court of Appeal – a growing forum for patent disputes – rules that the two-year statute of limitations for filing patent ownership claims cannot be interrupted….

(Compulsory) license, (Cross-border) jurisdiction, (Indirect) infringement, FRAND, Infringement, Litigation, Patents, United Kingdom

(Bristows)/

The Court of Appeal’s judgment in Optis Cellular Technology LLC v Apple Retail UK Ltd [2025] EWCA Civ 552, handed down on 1 May 2025, is arguably the most significant UK FRAND decision since Unwired Planet v Huawei. It not only overturns the High Court’s FRAND determination but re-establishes the centrality of a comparables-based approach…

Injunction, Litigation, Pharmaceutical patent, United Kingdom, Validity

(Bristows)/

In the UK, as well as in many other countries, being the first to market with a generic or biosimilar to a leading branded medicine is a critical strategy that can offer a major advantage to a company in a highly competitive landscape.  Being the first company to launch a generic product has several advantages. …

Case Law, EPC, Patents, Unitary Patent, UPC, Validity

(Hoffmann Eitle)/

G 1/24 addresses the extent to which the description can be used to interpret the claims. As previously discussed, it looks set to be one of the most consequential EPO decisions of the decade. The hearing in G 1/24 took place on 28 March, with the opponent advocating a new “diamond standard” that the “description…

China, European Union, FRAND, SEP

(City St. George’s, University of London) and (Parma University, IP Law Galli)/

Back in January 2025, the EU initiated consultations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to challenge the practice of Chinese courts to unilaterally set binding global royalty rates for non-Chinese standard essential patents (SEPs) without the consent of the parties to the litigation. According to the EU Commission press release, this unfairly pressures European high-tech…

Antibodies, Biologics, EPC, EPC, EPO, Inventive step, Pharmaceutical patent, Validity

(Bristows)/ /1 Comment

On 9 January 2025 I reported on Parts 1 and 2 of a three-part article in EPI Information by Tamaris Bucher, a Principal Patent Attorney at Novartis Pharma AG, on the current approach to antibody patents at the EPO. In Parts 1 and 2, Bucher argued that Part G.II.6.2 of the EPO Guidelines, which starts…

Case Law, Injunction, Netherlands, Pharma, Unitary Patent

(Hoffmann Eitle)/

Biogen has had mixed success in Europe in enforcing its patent on a second medical use of dimethylfumarate for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. In the present Dutch case, an attempt to obtain an injunction against three different generic companies resulted in a counterclaim for revocation of the (Dutch part of the) European patent. Biogen…

(Compulsory) license, Belgium, Competition, Patents

, , (Stibbe)/ /1 Comment

The refusal to grant a licence for intellectual property (IP) rights can sometimes conflict with competition law. This topic has already been explored in the case law of national courts and the Court of Justice of the European Union, most notably in the landmark case IMS Health (C418/01) of 29 April 2004. Such refusal has…

Patents, Spain

(Clifford Chance)/ /1 Comment

A recent reform of the Spanish Civil Procedure Act will introduce what the Recitals of Organic Law 1/2015 (“the Law”) call “other adequate means of dispute resolution in the non-jurisdictional route, as an indispensable measure for the consolidation of a sustainable public justice service” (according to the Spanish acronym, “MASC”). Recital IV of the Law…