by Steven Willis Judgments from the Courts of England and Wales concerned with the construction of patents will invariably cite the classic formulation of Lord Diplock from Catnic Components v Hill & Smith Ltd [1982] R.P.C. when addressing the identity of the person skilled in the art: “…a patent specification is a unilateral statement by…
A federal district court did not err in finding that Genius Electronic Optical, a supplier of camera lenses for Apple’s iPhone and iPad products, did not induce the infringement of five camera-lens patents held by Largan Precision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled (Largan Precision Co., Ltd. v. Genius Electronic…
A former employee inventor’s obligation to sign a declaration of assignment of a patent application to the former employer can be enforced in summary proceedings pursuant to the Swiss Code of Civil Procedure’s provisions regarding “Clear Cases”, under threat of a criminal penalty against the former employee, and even after the termination of the employment…
Increasing the (grounds of the) claim at a late stage of the proceedings in accelerated patent proceedings is contrary to due process of law. The claimed printer cartridge is not novel since no structural (technical) features distinguish the patent from the prior art. A full summary of this case has been published on Kluwer IP…
In its decision of 28 January 2016, the Danish Maritime and Commercial Court rendered judgement in a matter between Minkpapir A/S and Jasopels A/S. The main question was whether the conditions for granting an interim injunction pursuant to chapter 40 of the Danish Administration of Justice Act were met and in this regard whether Jasopels’…
According to article 66 of the Spanish Patents Act, in case of moral damages the patent owner will be entitled to compensation even if the existence of an economic damage has not been proven. In addition, according to article 68 “the holder of a patent may also claim for indemnification for damage resulting from the…
by Nicholas Round On 19 April 2016 Birss J handed down a short but notable judgment in the matter of EMGS v PGS. Following a three-week trial in March 2016 the parties had decided to settle the matter before receiving judgment. However, the purpose of Birss J’s judgment was not particularly to comment on this,…
By Jill (Yijun) Ge and Benjamin Bai We discussed when an IP owner might become an IP abuser previously (http://kluwerpatentblog.com/2016/03/08/crossing-the-rubicon-when-does-ip-owner-become-ip-abuser/). For standard essential patent (“SEP”) holders, one lingering question is whether they can still seek and enforce injunctions. Some take the view that the act of seeking injunctive relief is inherently inconsistent with an SEP…
European patent attorneys should make a joint effort and gather data to assess the impact of procedural issues on opposition procedures at the European Patent Office and, in the future, on decisions of the Unified Patent Court. Michael Wallinger, partner of law firm WRST, proposed this at the annual meeting of the European Patent Litigators…
Europe is preparing for the launch of the new Unitary Patent and the Unified Patent Court (UPC). A provisional phase for the UPC is expected to start later this year, with a view to a full start of the system in the spring of 2017. In a series of articles, Kluwer IP Law explains the…
