Novelty

Novelty is a requirement for patentability. An invention is not new and therefore not patentable if it was known to the public (disclosed in the prior art) before the filing date of the patent application, or, if the application claims priority of an earlier patent application, before the priority date.

Case Law, Novelty, Sufficiency of disclosure, United Kingdom

(Bristows)/

The High Court dismissed Novartis’ claim for infringement of its EP(UK) patent for ophthalmically compatible extended wear contact lenses. Although Novartis established that the defendants’ product falls within certain claims of the patent, and successfully resisted Johnson &Johnson’s novelty and obviousness attacks, the patent was found invalid for insufficiency. The Court held it would involve…

(Indirect) infringement, Case Law, Netherlands, Novelty, Validity

(Brinkhof)/

Lack of novelty by re-working prior art requires that the re-works must inevitably lead to results falling within the claim of the patent at issue. If choices have to be made for the re-working process, the result is not inevitable.A possible breach of Article 84 EPC (clarity) does not lead to nullity. The Court states…