In the first period of functioning of the Unified Patent Court, the judge-rapporteur – who has important powers in the new system – should as much as possible revert issues to the panel of judges as a whole. This is beneficial for the system and can prevent forum shopping, according to the Belgian judge Sam…
In its research concerning the complaint that was filed against ratification of the Unified Patent Court Agreement, the German Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) gave a series of mainly German institutions and associations the opportunity to submit their views. A spokesman of the Court, the Bundesverfassungsgericht, declared in answer to questions of Kluwer IP Law that a…
The Federal Constitutional Court in Germany has started investigating the constitutional complaint that was filed earlier this year against the German ratification of the Unified Patent Court Agreement. As German attorney at law Dr. Ingve Björn Stjerna reported last week, the Court ‘most recently sent the constitutional complaint (earlier reported on by Kluwer IP Law…
The Productivity Commission released its final report into Australia’s IP arrangements in December 2016 (covered in our post earlier this year, ‘IP Rights vs IP Wrongs’). Now, the Australian Government has weighed in on the Commission’s recommendations, supporting some and ‘noting’ others. With respect to patent law, the Government supports the following recommendations: Add an…
In March our partner Hetti Hilge reported on a preliminary injunction by which the Federal Patent Court granted Merck an interlocutory compulsory license for Merck’s HIV drug Isentress in the light of Shionogi’s Raltegravir patent EP 1 422 218 (link). The compusory license has now been confirmed in the second instance PI proceedings by the…
Lithuania completed the ratification formalities of the Unified Patent Court Agreement on 24 August 2017 by depositing its instrument of ratification with the secretariat of the EU Council in Brussels. It is the 14th member state to do so. Earlier this month, Estonia ratified the UPCA. Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta,…
Earlier this year, the Danish Maritime and Commercial Court rendered judgment in a patent case between Carl Freudenberg and Stadsing (SH2017.T-14-14S). Carl Freudenberg was the holder of a patent for a mop cover for a cleaning device (DK/EP 1 704 808). Stadsing conceded infringement if the patent-in-suit were held to be valid. Carl Freudenberg argued…
The surprising request by the German Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) to the German President to wait with his executing of the UPC ratification law, pending the outcome of a – heretofore unknown – constitutional complaint, has made many people wonder what is behind this constitutional complaint and on which alleged violations of the German Basic…
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s construction of a key claim term in a patent directed to a method for fabricating a self-aligned contact hole in a semiconductor circuit was overbroad in light of the actual claim language and specification, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has held. Because a prior art…
by Bernward Zollner It is often worthwhile to read again former judgments of the German Bun-desgerichtshof. In a judgment of 13 July 2010 – docket no. Xa ZR 126/07 – the court has discussed a patent on a staple cartridge for staples for surgical purposes (“Klam-mernahtgerät”). The court has stated that a disclosure is enabling…
