It is difficult to predict a new timeline for the start of the Unified Patent Court, due to the case pending in the German Federal Constitutional Court. In the meantime, the UPC Preparatory Committee is using the additional time available to prepare the functionality of the Court. Chairman Alexander Ramsay has written this in a…
The Federal Court of Justice held that a patent application is to be rejected if its subject-matter extends beyond the content of the application as originally filed and if this deficiency has not been rectified by the applicant upon request by the examiner (following FCJ X ZB 17/73 Regelventil). The incorporation of a feature according…
Patent-owner Inventor Holdings, LLC, was properly ordered by the federal district court in Wilmington, Delaware, to pay attorney fees and costs incurred by retailer Bed Bath & Beyond in successfully defending against infringement claims, after the asserted patent was found to be ineligible under Section 101 of the Patent Act, the U.S. Court of Appeals…
It is questionable whether the German constitutional complaint against ratification of the Unified Patent Court Agreement addresses fundamental breaches of the German Constitution. And even if the Federal Constitutional Court thinks this is the case, it may reject as inadmissible the complaint for a decision. Prof. Dr. Winfried Tilmann of Hogan Lovells argues this in…
One of the drawbacks of a fragmented patent litigation system in Europe is the existence of contradictory judgments on exactly the same question from Courts of different European countries. The most recent example of this anomaly can be found in the different conclusions reached by a Spanish Court and, a few weeks later, by an…
The European Patent Office has been established by an international agreement, the European Patent Convention. All functioning patent systems that I am aware of are based on a structural principle that is basically simple: There is a patent office that receives and examines patent applications and grants patents for those that satisfy the requirements of…
What does the Brexit deal, which was reached by UK Prime Minister Theresa May with the EU earlier today, mean for (the British membership of) the Unitary Patent system? How important for instance is paragraph 38 of the Joint Paper, which establishes the continued involvement of the CJEU in the UK? Kluwer IP Law contacted…
To ensure you don’t miss out on interesting IP law developments reported on our other IP blogs, we will, on a regular basis, provide you with an overview of the top 3 most-read posts from each of our IP law blogs. Here are the top posts from September, October and November. Top 3 Kluwer Copyright…
Yesterday was St. Nicholas Day in Germany and many other European Countries. As Wikipedia helpfully as always explains, St. Nicholas fills the boot with gifts and sweets overnight, and at the same time checks up on the children to see if they were good, polite and helpful the last year. If they were not, they…
Despite uncertainty about the UK’s post-Brexit position in the Unitary Patent (UP) system and the German constitutional compliant against the Unified Patent Court Agreement (UPCA), several steps leading towards UK ratification of the UPCA have been taken over the last weeks. The House of Commons approved the draft Unified Patent Court (Immunities and Privileges) Order…
