In a decision dated 14 June 2012, the Swiss Federal Patent Court granted a patent holder’s request for preliminary taking of evidence by means of the creation of a precise description of an allegedly infringing process. The Patent Court ordered that the description shall be carried out at defendant’s premises by a technically trained judge…
The numerus clausus of legally permissible pieces of evidence in the new Swiss Civil Procedure Code (CPC) – unlike in many other codes of civil procedure – does not provide for private expert opinions. Only court-appointed expert opinions are foreseen in the CPC. The question therefore arises, how the new Swiss Patent Court should deal…
The Swiss Federal Supreme Court rendered its first decision regarding the new pre-trial taking of evidence proceeding in Switzerland’s new Code of Civil Procedure Law (ZPO) and in the Swiss Patent Act (PatG). More than a few patent practitioners feared that the Federal Supreme Court would confirm the challenged decision of the Court of Commerce…
An SPC can only be granted if the product falls within the scope of protection of the basic patent. If the basic patent claims a combination of two known components (i.e. a monoclonal antibody with a neoplastic agent), that combination is the patent’s contribution to the art. An individual component is not equivalent to the…
As per January 1, 2012 the Swiss Federal Patent Court became effective. The Federal Patent Court is exclusively competent for: a. validity and infringement disputes and actions for issuing a license in respect of patents; b. ordering preliminary measures prior to the filing of a complaint as defined in letter a; c. the enforcement of…
In a recently published decision the Swiss Federal Supreme Court clarified some particularities of the former Swiss Patent Act regarding the amendment of patent claims during prosecution proceedings. Under the Swiss Patent Act in force until 1 July 2008, applicants who applied for the grant of a Swiss patent were allowed to extend the scope…
If incorrect pre-litigation behavior of only one of the parties (in this case evasive and conflicting answers to warning letters of a patentee) leads to unnecessary litigation, the court costs and legal expenses of the counterparty have to be imposed entirely on the party that acted incorrectly. Click here for the full text of this case. A…
Patentability of an invention is not excluded by the mere fact that the only feature of the patent claim not comprised in the state of the art is a dosage regime. Click here for the full text of this case. A full summary of this case has been published on Kluwer IP Law.
The gentle reader of this blog knows that on January 1, 2012 the new Federal Patent Court will take up work in Switzerland. As Switzerland’s court of first instance in matters dealing with patents, the Federal Patent Court will rule on civil-law disputes concerning patents. It will rule, for instance, on litigation over patent validity…
The Federal Institute of Intellectual Property can also issue a supplementary protection certificate to an applicant if a certificate for the same active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) or combination thereof has already been granted to a third person. By interpreting the law in that way – only restricting the grant of a certificate for the same…
