The Appeals Court held that an argument that was not raised in first instance proceedings, shall not be considered a new matter, and consequently be dismissed, if it only further specifies or clarifies the line of argumentation in first instance. On the other hand, f the plaintiff refers to the specifics of a technical teaching…
Over the past months several webites have been launched that try to track and trace any and all news and documents on the Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court (“UPC”). Today the faithful UPC watcher has a new forum to shop: www.unified-patent-court.org. This is not just any website, but the official online outlet of the…
In a combined patent infringement and nullity case, the Svea Court of Appeal upheld the validity of Roche Diagnostics’ European patent as far as Sweden was concerned, but held, other than the District Court, that the alleged infringer did not infringe the patent at issue. The Court of Appeal further held that a patent can…
Today the UPC Rules Committee is passing the official version of the 15th draft of the UPC Rules of Procedure to the Commission. It is anticipated that this will become the first draft for official release very soon by the Preparatory Committee, and then be the subject of a period (probably three months) of public…
by Stefan Lieck In a judgement of 17 January 2013 (docket no. I-2 U 87/12), the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court confirmed its previous case law according to which the issuance of a preliminary injunction against generic companies based on patent law is possible under less stringent conditions. According to the case law of the Düsseldorf…
by Stephan von Petersdorff-Campen The amount at issue in a legal claim serves as the basis for establishing the court fees and lawyers’ fees to be reimbursed to the successful party. The consequences (including indictable consequences) of a claim value that has been set too low have previously been the object of contributions to this…
When a preliminary injunction is lifted, the debate arises regarding the amount of damages that the company affected by the preliminary injunction may claim against the applicant. A recent judgment of 6 May 2013 from Commercial Court number 6 of Barcelona has shed some light on this topic. The background of the case can be…
One of the remedies introduced by Directive EC 2004/48, of 29 April 2004, was preliminary injunctions aimed at prohibiting acts of infringement when there are indicia indicating that an act of infringement may be “imminent.” It is the nature of preliminary injunctions, which require an element of urgency, that patentees may be required to prove…
The Court of Appeal held that the duty to compensate the successful party’s legal costs in intellectual property proceedings, pursuant to Art. 14 of the Enforcement directive, also applies to invalidity claims, counterclaims and defenses by the alleged infringing party threatened with patent enforcement. To deny such compensation in respect of nullity claims or defenses…
The Board of Appeal ruled that color figures contained in the application when filed could be used as a basis for amendments. The board had to deal with the problem that no original copy of the color figures was available to the board. Therefore, the board considered it appropriate to compare sets of copies of…
