The festive season is almost upon us once again. Since many British and other European folk (not to mention our American cousins) are feeling somewhat exhausted by the political upheavals that 2016 has brought with it, the Kluwer patents team thought that there could be few better ways to take one’s mind off the current turmoil…
The appeal court is not prevented from denying the credibility of a witness affirmed in the first instance court if there are concrete indications that raise doubts about the correctness and completeness of the relevant findings of fact and if therefore the facts have to be appraised anew, but if the witness has passed away…
Purchasers of AstraZeneca LP’s heartburn medication Nexium were not entitled to a new trial to their challenge of “reverse payment” agreements between AstraZeneca and Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals that allegedly blocked the entry of a generic version of the drug, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Boston has decided. The plaintiffs’ argument that the trial court improperly…
Whenever a patent holder fails to prove that the patent protection of a component, incorporated into a complex product, is not of subordinate importance to the basic functional characteristic of the good (in this case of vehicles, characterized as bringing passengers from one point to another safely), the doctrine of exhaustion applies, irrespective of where…
Depending on the outcome of the UK Government’s appeal to the Supreme Court on the issue of whether Parliament has to be consulted about the decision to give notice under Article 50 to leave the EU, the procedure which must lead to ratification of the Unified Patent Court Agreement could be the first case since…
There is a lot of enthusiasm among German patent judges, in particular but not only the younger ones, for the Unitary Patent system and the Unified Patent Court, according to Dr. Klaus Grabinski, Judge of the Federal Court of Justice of Karlsruhe in Germany. In an interview with Kluwer IP Law he welcomed the news…
On 25 November 2016 Italy’s ratification law of the UPC Agreement was published in the Official Gazette of the Italian Republic (Law no. 214 of 3 November 2016 – link to the Official Gazette here). The ratification law – which definitely puts an end to the hostility initially shown by the Italian government to the UPC…
What will happen if the United Kingdom, after ratifying the Unified Patent Court Agreement (UPCA) and some years of membership of the Unified Patent (UP) system, leaves the European Union? Can it continue to be a member of the system? If it doesn’t, what will happen to Unitary Patents that up to the Brexit were…
In an effort to further enhance protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) and to promote implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy, the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) of China posted online proposed revisions to Guidelines for Patent Examination to solicit public opinions from 28 October to 27 November 2016. The new guidelines are expected to…
The Preparatory Committee of the Unified Patent Court is delighted with the UK’s decision to ratify the UPC Agreement and will publish a revised roadmap for the start of the Unitary Patent system as soon as possible. Chairman Alexander Ramsay is a happy man, he told Kluwer IP Law. Monday’s announcement of Minister of State…
