In ten to fifteen years, the current differences between European patent attorneys (EPAs), lawyers and patent litigators will have diminished and a there will be a new category of professionals, who are experts in litigation at the Unified Patent Court (UPC) . This is the expectation of Koen Bijvank, president of the European Patent Litigators…
If conflicts arise under the Unitary Patent system, parties have the option to go to the Unified Patent Court (UPC), or they can agree to go the court’s Patent and Mediation Centre (PMAC). In their current version, the Rules on Arbitration and Mediation do not provide for the possibility of Judges of the UPC to…
The UK IPO (the British bureau for intellectual property) recently made clear to various stakeholders that the proceedings for British approval of the agreement on a Unified Patent Court, better known as the “UPC Agreement”) continue. The UK IPO mentioned however that the UPC Agreement will probably be voted upon only after the British EU…
In its decision of December 15, 2015 the Federal Court of Justice confirmed the judgment of the Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court of 2014 concerning the direct infringement of use patents by manifest arrangement. In this case the defendants had manufactured insulation material made of glass fibres and sold it to the building industry in Germany….
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has decided not to grant requests for and en banc rehearing of an earlier panel decision holding that the International Trade Commission (“ITC” or “Commission”) lacks the authority to prevent the importation of infringing electronic files into the United States (ClearCorrect Operating, LLC v. International Trade…
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…
Hopefully the United Kingdon won’t jeopardize the Unitary Patent project with a vote to withdraw the European Union, says Jane Lambert, barrister from 4-5 Gray’s Inn Square in London. ‘However, it could still continue without us’, Lambert told Kluwer IP Law in an interview. Lambert, who recently published a series of articles (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) on the…
Friday 1st April was the final day of the Fordham conference. This short report summarises one of the more interesting patent-focused sessions which dealt with second medical use issues. Brian Cordery from Bristows set the scene. He briefly referred to some of the recent European decisions on Swiss-type claims, particularly the pregabalin and pemetrexed cases….
As a foreign spectator of the litigation between Actavis and Eli Lilly (Alimta®) before the English Patents Court (the Hon. Mr. Justice Arnold), this author was fascinated by the ease with which the Court allowed Actavis to add endless new petitions to its declaratory non-infringement action (“DNA”), particularly taking into account that the DNA was…
For 2016, the Fordham Conference has returned to its home on the Upper West side of Manhattan. In the meantime, the Institute has been rebuilt and the shabby-chic has been replaced with a state of the art new facility. The sun shone on your author (both figuratively and literally) this morning as the programme compilers…
