The Polish Presidency put a lot of effort into the proposed regulation on unitary patent protection, the translation arrangements, and the court system for patent litigation. However, due to the lack of a common agreement among member states on the location of the central patent court, the signing ceremony of the uniform patent system scheduled…
The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that Article 13 of the old SPC Regulation (EEC 1768/92, identical to article 13 of the “new” SPC Regulation (EC469/2009) in conjunction with Article 36 of the Pediatric Regulation (EC 1901/2006), allow for the grant of an SPC of negative duration. The additional term provided by…
Multiple rulings of the CJEU on the SPC Regulation fail to answer questions posed by the national courts, result in greater confusion and give rise to a need for yet more references. Introduction In Novartis Pharmaceuticals UK Ltd v Medimmune Ltd & Anor [2012] EWHC 181, Mr Justice Arnold was required to apply the recent…
Last December, the negotiations relating to the future creation of a Patent Court for the European Union (“EU”) collapsed as a consequence of the failure on the part of Germany, the United Kingdom and France to reach an agreement on the location of the so-called “central” division. As is usually the case in this type…
As could almost have been predicted, the European Parliament has cancelled its First Reading and its vote on the creation of unitary patent protection. It has instead now scheduled just a brief hearing for 14 February 2012, to be held between 9:00 and 10:20 a.m. Members of the European Parliament will present their reports in…
The recent judgment from the ECJ of 24 November 2011 in case C-322/10 (“Medeva”) has surprised the patent community, since the ECJ appears to have changed the view expressed in its judgment of 16 September of 1999 in case C-392/97 (“Farmitalia”), where the Court declared that it was not for the ECJ, but for national…
Among many other tasks, the Danish Government when taking over the EU Presidency as of 1 January took over the continued challenges (and problems) in connection with securing a compromise that may lead to a Unified Patent Court. Despite the intentions of the Polish presidency to land a compromise during its tenure, the issue remains…
The Court of Justice clarified the requirements for grant of an SPC under Articles 3(a) and 3(b) of the SPC Regulation. According to the Court, on the basis of Article 3(a) an SPC cannot be granted for active ingredients not specified in the wording of the claims of the basic patent. With reference to Article…
By Miquel Montañá In year 2021, Italy will celebrate the 600th anniversary of the patent granted by the Republic of Florence to Filippo Brunelleschi for his ship “Il Badalone”, the first patent ever granted. Quite ironically, the fathers of the first patent, and of the first Patent Act, approved by the Republic of Venice in…
On 24 November 2011 the CJEU passed judgment in the cases C-322/10 (Medeva) and C-422/10 (Georgetown). In the Medeva judgment, the Court answers six questions put to it by the UK Court of Appeal and the High Court respectively. The facts are deemed known by the reader – they can be conveniently reduced to: A…
