United States of America

(Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory US)/

In awarding plaintiff Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (“CSIRO”) $16,243,067 in damages for Cisco Systems’ (“Cisco’s”) infringement of CSIRO’s U.S. Patent No. 5,487,069 (“’069 patent”), the federal district court in Tyler, Texas, erred by not accounting for the ’069 patent’s standard-essential status and in its reasoning for discounting a relevant license agreement, the U.S….

Amendments, Germany, Priority right

(Hoffmann Eitle)/

A new decision by the German Federal Court of Justice (X ZR 112/13 – Teilreflektierende Folie) provides another illustrative example of the FCJ’s fairly generous and applicant-friendly case law on the allowability of amendments and priority. The patent at stake was a European Patent directed to the use of an image projector, a reflective surface…

European Union, UPC

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Prompted by the upcoming Unitary Patent (UP) and Unified Patent Court (UPC), a group of European patent attorneys decided in 2013 to create the European Patent Litigators Association (EPLIT), ‘promoting fair patent litigation in Europe’. Kluwer IP Law spoke to its president, Koen Bijvank. ‘It is unpredictable how the market for patent litigation will change…

Germany

(Rospatt Osten Pross)/

by Miriam Büttner In a recent decision the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf (OLG Düsseldorf) had to deal with the right to sue of exclusive licensees (judgment of 24 September 2015, docket no. I-2 U 30/15). https://www.justiz.nrw.de/nrwe/olgs/duesseldorf/j2015/I_2_U_30_15_Urteil_20150924.html Background of the case was the request of an exclusive licensee for a preliminary in-junction against an alleged…

Case Law, EPC, EPO Decision

(V.O.)/

A board of appeal of the European Patent Office held that a conditional request for oral proceedings filed with a notice of opposition remains effective after appeal and remittal to the opposition division, even when the party fails to restate the request in response to an invitation for requests by the opposition division after the remittal….

United States of America

(Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory US)/

For bringing a “frivolous” appeal of a district court’s claim construction order in a patent dispute over a portable camera convertible support device, AdjustaCam, LLC, has been ordered by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to pay Newegg, Inc., Newegg.com, Inc., and Rosewill, Inc. (collectively, “Newegg”) their attorney fees, expenses, and costs…

European Union, Unitary Patent, United States of America, UPC

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The countdown to the new Unitary Patent system has begun. The Unified Patent Court is expected to open its doors at the start of 2017, preceded by a provisional phase in 2016 for the practical set up of the Court and the recruitment of judges and staff. Not only European patent specialists are preparing, companies…

European Union, SPC, Unitary Patent, UPC

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The lack of provisions on Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs) is seen as a major flaw in the new Unitary Patent (UP) system. Initiatives have been taken to address this issue and recently the European Commission put it on its action list. Why doesn’t the UP Regulation include a provision for SPCs? Anja Lunze, attorney at…

Inventive step, Pharma, Priority right, Second Medical Use, Sufficiency of disclosure, United Kingdom

(Bristows)/

Mr Justice Carr has only been sitting as a full time judge for just over a month and yet in his decision of 16 November 2015, he has already produced what this author considers to be a sensible, but thought-provoking judgment that is readable and comparatively concise. The case involved a challenge by the well-known…