The Court held that a certain means does not relate to an essential element of the invention just because it is used for a step in the method preceding the patented steps of the method. Even where this is necessary in order to apply the method, no contributory infringement of the patent can be established….
An inventor and holder of a patent for a “smokeless pipe” could not pursue a lawsuit against the United States in the Court of Federal Claims based on allegations that various private persons had infringed his patent, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has held. The inventor identified no law that permitted…
Draft rules for the Patent Mediation and Arbitration Centre (PMAC) of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) will be discussed during the next meeting of the UPC Preparatory Committee on 19 October 2015. Together with these rules, a Memorandum of Operation will be introduced regarding the proposed legal and operational structure of the Centre. Sam Granata,…
As in other jurisdictions patentees in Swiss patent disputes often rely on the so called action by stages approach, which allows patentees to demand disclosure of information and financial accounting before the proceedings progress to the actual claim for lost profits, infringer’s profits or a royalty fee. In a recently published decision dated 25 August…
Secessionist pressure grows in Catalonia, after regional elections on 27 September 2015 (qualified as an informal referendum on independence) were won by supporters of an independent Catalonia. In Scotland supporters of independence have been far from silenced since they lost a referendum on the same issue last year. Kluwer IP Law found the following article…
Article 118 of the EPC (entitled “Unity of the European patent application or European patent”) states that: “[…] the text of the application or patent shall be uniform for all designated Contracting States, unless this Convention provides otherwise.” Like other Articles such as Article 2.2, 14.3, 43.1, 130.1 or 148.1, Article 118 follows the logic…
Since the scope of an amended patent claim was not substantially similar to the scope of the original claim, the patentee was not entitled to infringement damages for the period prior to the amendment, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled (R+L Carriers, Inc. v. Qualcomm, Inc., September 17, 2015, O’Malley,…
The occasion of the autumn equinox seemed to be as good a time as any to release the results of the Kluwer Patent Blog summer quiz. Sincere thanks to the 92 people who completed all 20 questions. The results were interesting and genuinely surprising. The highlights were as follows: • No-one got all 20 questions…
By Benjamin Bai and Tyler Xiu The Chinese inventor remuneration laws have been in flux for the last several years. Uncertainties are abundant. The first remuneration case involving a foreign company, Zhang v. 3M, has exacerbated the uncertainties – it seems to call into question if any remuneration policy short of 2% profit sharing would…
‘Europe can become a more attractive forum for patent enforcement than the US’, according to Wouter Pors, partner of Bird & Bird. Kluwer IP Law interviewed him about the new draft proposal for the Rules on the European Patent Litigation Certificate and other appropriate qualifications. ‘We shouldn’t just focus on the minimum requirements.’ Pors expects the…
