On 1st April 2016 the National Human Right Commission (NHRC) called on the Indian government to submit reports on the allegations that the Indian government had given private assurances to the US that India would adopt a stringent approach when granting compulsory licences over patented drugs. While the Ministry of Commerce & Industry in a…
by Rachel Mumby It would be an unusual case in which the parties did not criticise each other’s experts in one way or another, and indeed patent litigators in England and Wales have become no stranger to judicial criticism of the way that experts are instructed. However, in the case of American Science & Engineering…
A district court properly denied a plaintiff attorney fees after it had accepted an offer of judgment to settle claims for damages and equitable relief, the U.S. Court of Appeals in New York City has held (Steiner v. Lewmar, Inc., March 7, 2016, Chin, D.). An award of costs was proper. A full summary of…
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board did not err in affirming a patent examiner’s obviousness rejection of 23 claims of a Hubbell patent titled “Convertible electrical device cover and method for installing same,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled (In re Hubbell Inc., April 7, 2016, per curiam). The court…
Arbitration courts (which have mandatory jurisdiction over certain patent disputes regarding generic drugs) have the authority to issue a compulsory fine for not complying with a court order, provided that there is a present or imminent non-compliance with the ordered obligation (‘non facere’). A full summary of this case has been published on Kluwer IP…
Arbitration courts have competence to declare the invalidity of an allegedly infringed patent where the question is raised as an incidental defence. The decision only has inter partes effects. A full summary of this case has been published on Kluwer IP Law.
If reaction from business to the Unified Patent Court is good, it will definitely be a challenge for the new management of the Court. Eileen Tottle, Head of the Secretariat of the UPC Preparatory Committee, said this in an interview with Kluwer IP Law. ‘Setting up a completely new business, which is of course is…
Okay, this result, which was recently reached by TBA 3.3.04 in decision T 394/11 (in German language), may perhaps not come as a big surprise to you, since we all learnt in school that acetic acid is a classic example of an organic acid as opposed to an inorganic acid. Yet it raises two interesting…
The UPC Preparatory Committee has announced the selection of judges will start soon. During its 15th meeting, on 14 April 2016 in Luxembourg, agreement was reached on the recruitment package. In its report on the meeting the Preparatory Committee writes this means ‘adverts for judicial appointments can be advertised in May. The exact date of…
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…
