Patents

A patent is a document, issued, upon application, by a government office (or a regional office acting for several countries), which describes an invention and creates a legal situation in which the patented invention can normally only be exploited (manufactured, used, sold, imported) with the authorization of the holder of the patent. ‘Invention’ means a solution to a specific problem in the field of technology. An invention may relate to a product or a process. The protection conferred by the patent is limited in time, generally 20 years. In a number of countries, inventions are also protectable through registration of a ‘utility model’ or ‘short-term patent’.

Case Law, Equivalents, Infringement, Litigation, Patents, Procedure, Technology, Trade secrets, United Kingdom

(Bristows)/

Introduction On 17 July 2023, the English Court of Appeal handed down its decision in a dispute between J.C. Bamford (JCB) and Manitou about the confidentiality of information disclosed in the course of litigation between JCB and Manitou relating to the validity and infringement of certain of JCB’s patents.  At the heart of the confidentiality…

Case Law, Litigation, Patents, Prior art, Revocation, United Kingdom, Validity

, (Bristows)/ /1 Comment

On 18 July 2023, the Court of Appeal handed down its judgment in Vernacare Limited v Moulded Fibre Products Limited [2023] EWCA Civ 841, an appeal from the decision of Nicholas Caddick QC (sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court). The Court of Appeal, with Sir Christopher Floyd giving…

Patents, Unitary Patent, UPC

(Simmons & Simmons LLP)/ /2 Comments

As of the end of June 2023, 535,152 patents and applications have been opted-out of the jurisdiction of the Unified Patent Court. The effective number of opt-outs is already being reduced by subsequent withdrawals and removals. To date, 54 withdrawals and 220 removals of opt-outs have been requested. There have also been 52 automatic withdrawals…

FRAND, Litigation, Patents, SEP, United Kingdom

, (Bristows)/

As many readers will know, Apple and Optis have been engaged in international litigation concerning Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) since 2019. On 26 February 2019, Optis filed an action against Apple in the English Patents Court for infringement of the GB designations of eight European Patents.  Following a finding that at least one of Optis’…

Case Law, Inventive step, Litigation, Patents, Pharmaceutical patent, Plausibility, Sufficiency of disclosure, United Kingdom, Validity

(Bristows)/ /2 Comments

On 4 May 2023, a mere two weeks after the conclusion of the hearing, the Court of Appeal handed down its decision in Sandoz and Teva v BMS. The appeal decision is centred on the question of plausibility and comes hot on the heels of the Enlarged Board of Appeal’s decision in G 2/21. Indeed,…

Patents, Prior art, Revocation, Russia, United Kingdom, Validity

(Bristows)/

His Honour Judge Hacon handed down judgment in AutoStore v Ocado on 30 March 2023.  The case was atypical in that it had a split trial: the first part of the trial considered whether AutoStore’s patents (EP 794 and EP 027) were rendered invalid by prior disclosures made in Russia, the second part considered “technical…

Patents, SPC

(Clifford Chance)/ /3 Comments

When the European Commission earlier today published the legislative proposals aimed at introducing a unitary SPC to be examined by a central examination procedure, one of the Beatle’s most beautiful songs immediately sprang to mind: The Long and Winding Road. In particular, the European Commission has published several legislative proposals, four of which are relevant…

Added matter, Amendments, Case Law, Infringement, Litigation, Patents, Pharma, Pharmaceutical patent, Plausibility, Revocation, Sufficiency of disclosure, United Kingdom, Validity

, , (Bristows)/

On 21 March 2023, Meade J gave a bumper judgment in the revocation action brought by Gilead in respect of two of NuCana’s patents from the same family (EP (UK) 2 955 190 and EP (UK) 3 904 365, the “Patents”), which relate to nucleoside analogues.   Filling 102 pages, the judgment raises a number of…

Denmark, Inventive step, Patents

(Bugge Valentin)/

On 28 February 2023, the majority of the Danish Maritime and Commercial High Court did not find sufficient grounds for rebutting the presumption of the validity of the Danish patent DK/EP 2 959 894 (the “Contested Patent”), held by Novartis, and thus decided to grant a preliminary injunction against Zentiva. Notably, though, the opposing judge…