Part I – Introduction The word “vision” has a couple of fascinatingly different meanings. There is a famous saying by Helmut Schmidt, Germany’s chancellor from 1974-1982, who recommended to anyone proclaiming that he/she had a vision to see a doctor. According to wiktionary, vision may mean: 1. The sense or ability of sight. 2. Something…
In a recent judgment rendered by the Danish Maritime and Commercial Court between Coloplast A/S (Coloplast) and Hollister Incorporated (Hollister), the Court considered whether or not Coloplast was the co-inventor (and co-owner) of a patent application filed by Hollister. In 2011, Hollister filed its European patent application EP 11175010.5 regarding a catheter package and the…
It is self-evident that the Unitary Patent system is good for Europe. The project will attract the best judges, there is a good set of procedural rules, the industry wants it, this is a ‘no brainer’ and the start of the system is taking too long. Alexander Ramsay, chairman of the Preparatory Committee of the…
Anyone who ends up litigating in Spain, be it as complainant or as a defendant, should be wary of the rigidity of Spanish patent litigation. Unlike in other jurisdictions, where the parties enjoy leeway to fine-tune their initial positions down the road, according to Spain’s Civil Procedure Act, the initial statements made by the parties…
Adding to the long series of referrals concerning the interpretation of Art. 3(a) Reg. (EC) No. 469/2009 (“SPC Regulation”) (“the product is protected by a basic patent in force”) the UK Court of Appeal (Sandoz/Searle, Case No. A3 2017 1483) on 25 January 2018 referred further questions to the CJEU. This latest referral from the…
Over the last few decades, the United States has been incrementally harmonizing its patent law with the rest of the world. Those efforts continued with the signing of the America Invents Act (“AIA”) in 2011. For example, the AIA created a first inventor-to-file patent system, while all but eliminating the best mode requirement. One area…
In a lawsuit involving the alleged infringement of an Exmark patent that described a lawn mower with improved flow-control baffles, a federal district court erroneously based its summary judgment finding of no invalidity solely on the fact that the patent claim at issue had survived multiple reexaminations, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal…
The Supreme Court upheld the decision of the First Instance Court that the defendant had been using oval-shaped signs that fell within the scope of the patent since 2008, without the consent of the plaintiff. No defence was invoked during the proceedings, hence the defendant had infringed the plaintiff’s specific patent right. Case date: 28 March…
In a long-awaited judgment, the Spanish Supreme Court has clarified the application of the TRIPS agreement to patent applications affected by the Spanish reservation to the EPC: Article 70.7 of TRIPS allowed owners of patent applications filed before 7 October 1992, but which were still pending when TRIPS came into force, to amend the patents…
Recently, “New Investment Guidelines of the European Patent Office” (CA/F 18/17 Rev. 1) was published among the “Administrative Council documents” on the EPO web site. The Investment Guidelines relate to management of the treasury of the EPO and outline a more flexible approach for investing the funds in the treasury. In particular, rather than being…
