The Board of Appeal found that the examining division had committed a substantial procedural violation by raising tentative patentability objections rather than completing an improperly justified incomplete search. Thus tentative examination had improperly been used as a condition for completing the search, rather than completing the search first and examining later. This forced the applicant…
According to the Spanish Patents Act, as a general rule, non-exclusive licensees do not have locus standi. However, when a third party is infringing the patent, they may require the patent owner to take action. According to the Law, if the patent owner fails to take action within three months, the non-exclusive licensee may then…
Christmas is the time of good wishes. Here is my personal wishlist. 1. Peace! 2. That we all consent that there is human dignity and that it is inviolable and independent of race, colour, origin, gender and language. And that we act accordingly and acknowledge inviolable and inalienable human rights as the basis of every…
Germany has resumed preparations for the ratification of the Unified Patent Court Agreement. A draft bill for the implementation of the UPCA was published on 9 December 2016 by Justice Minister Heiko Maas. Together with the UK, Germany is one of the two countries that still have to ratify the UPCA before the Unitary Patent system…
by Steven Willis Yesterday, the Patents Court handed down yet another decision in the Sisyphean pregablin litigation, this time refusing Sandoz’ application to vary the Order for Injunction which resulted from Arnold J’s October 2015 decision (“Sandoz I”) to injunct Sandoz following its launch of a full label pregabalin product (“Pregabalin Sandoz”). As is typically…
IP Australia has recently published its Exposure Drafts for the Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Bill 2017 and the Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Regulations 2017 for public comment. The amendments aim to “align and streamline the processes for obtaining, maintaining and challenging intellectual property (IP) rights” and to ” reduce the regulatory burden for businesses that…
The federal district court in Los Angeles did not err in granting default judgment and a permanent injunction to United Construction Products, Inc. dba Bison Innovative Products on its patent infringement and unfair competition claims against Tile Tech, Inc., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled (Tile Tech, Inc. v. United…
The UK signed the Protocol on Privileges and Immunities of the Unified Patent Court on 14 December 2016 in Brussels. It is an important step in the process that should lead to UK ratification of the Unified Patent Court Agreement. The UK still needs to pass national legislation, a so-called statutory instrument (SI), to enact…
by Rüdiger Pansch for rospatt osten pross In two recent decisions, the Federal Supreme Court developed its case law on entitlement strengthening the position of the plaintiff in entitlement proceedings. Judgment of 27 September 2016, docket no. X ZR 163/12 (“coating process”) This decision develops the case law on benefits of use in cases of…
by Chloe Dickson On 30 November 2016 the Court of Appeal handed down judgment in the latest chapter of the Hospira v Genentech epic surrounding Genentech’s blockbuster drug trastuzumab (Herceptin®) (Hospira v Genentech [2016] EWCA Civ 1185). This instalment concerned a patent for use of the antibody trastuzumab in combination with a traditional chemotherapeutic agent,…
