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The March ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) in Germany that the German ratification of the Unified Patent Court Agreement (UPCA) was void because it didn’t get the required two-thirds majority, increased the uncertainty about the viability of the project. But the debate is far from over. Patrick Breyer, member of the European Parliament…
The new Rules of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal (RPBA), which came into force on 1 January 2020, will be a cornerstone in helping the EPO’s Boards of Appeal meet their objectives of settling 90% of cases within 30 months of receipt and reducing the number of pending cases to fewer than 7,000 by…
Nippon Shokubai filed an opposition against the grant of BASF’s patent. In relation to the payment they filed EPO Form 2300E, which – erroneously – did not indicate any payment method in box X ‘Payment’, which then indicated ‘not specified’. In the accompanying letter the professional representative had indicated that the opposition fee could be…
by Dr. Simon Klopschinski On February 13, 2020 the German Federal Constitutional Court decided that the German law ratifying the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court is void (see here). In the meantime the Constitutional Court has issued another sentence which deals with the European Central Bank’s bond-buying programme (see here). On May 13, 2020…
Plants and animals exclusively obtained by essentially biological processes are not patentable. That is the opinion (G 3/19) of the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO). According to an EPO press communiqué of 14 May 2020, the “Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office adopted a dynamic interpretation of…
Biolitec owns a European patent on an endoluminal laser ablation device which comprises a flexible wave guide (optical fiber) which at the distal end includes a radiation emitting surface to emit radiation laterally with respect to the axis of the fiber. Tobrix commercializes two types of optical fiber for treatment of varicose veins that allegedly…
The case concerns the transfer of a priority right from an employee to his/her employer and the relevant time zone for determining the priority: 1. The validity of the transfer of rights to an invention by the employer by claiming it as a service invention is governed by the law applicable to the employment contract….
This is a follow-up to Jan-Diederik Lindemans’ post of 18 December 2019 discussing the guidelines on legal privilege during saisie-contrefaçon adopted by the Brussels Bar Association (‘BBA’) on 21 October 2019. In a judgment of 26 March 2020, the Ghent Business Court confirmed the BBA’s position on this issue. In the 26 March 2020 judgment,…
With the rendering of the judgment in Royalty Pharma (C-650/17) by the Court of Justice of the European Union today on 30 April 2020, a series of referrals relating to the interpretation of Article 3(a) of the SPC Regulation, which requires that the product of an SPC must be “protected” by the basic patent, finally…
Back in 2018 the European Commission appointed a Group of Experts on licensing and valuation of standard essential patents (SEPs). Their report is expected to be released later this year. What to expect from this Group of Experts? The mission of the Group of Experts is to “deepen the expertise on evolving industry practices related…
