Some musings about a song by Georg Kreisler and about the most recent plans of the President of the EPO to have the Boards of Appeal move to Vienna. The unforgettable Austrian–American Viennese-language cabarettist, satirist, composer, and author Georg Kreisler (1922-2011) once wrote a famous song having the title „Death must be a Viennese, just…
The creation of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) means that there will finally be a judiciary to control the very strong executive power of the European patent system, the European Patent Office, Jens Schovsbo, Professor at the Centre for Information and Innovation Law of the University of Copenhagen, told Kluwer IP Law in an interview. According…
The Oslo District Court held that the climbing skin concept “Fisher Easy Skin” for ski-grip on a snow base launched by the defendants Finor AS and Fischer Sports GmbH (hereinafter jointly “Fisher”), did not infringe Norwegian patent NO 318691 (the “Hartmann-patent”) to which Active Brands AS (hereinafter “Active Brands”) was an exclusive licensee. The Hartmann-patent…
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….
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…
Andorra has a well-deserved reputation as a wonder of nature. In spite of its tiny size (468 Km2) it offers the best of both worlds: endless trekking tracks leading you to the most remote lakes and peaks in summer, ski resorts with up to 193 km of slopes in a single resort in winter and,…
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…
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…
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….
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…
