Countries, Procedure, United Kingdom

(Bristows)/

The English High Court has recently ruled on the appropriateness of staying validity and infringement proceedings pending a Technical Board of Appeal (“TBA”) decision of the European Patent Office (“EPO”), and on using disclosed documents in parallel foreign proceedings. The parties involved have had a number of skirmishes recently in various courts throughout the world….

(Indirect) infringement, Italy, Procedure, Validity

(Trevisan & Cuonzo)/

As stated already in one my earlier posts (here), Legislative Decree no. 131/2010 has introduced a new procedural tool in the Italian IP litigation scenario. New Art. 128 of the Italian IP Code now allows the conduction of a Preliminary Technical Assessment (PTA). In practice, as an alternative to commencing ordinary proceedings or preliminary injunction…

Procedure, Switzerland

(MLL Legal Ltd.)/

As per January 1, 2012 the Swiss Federal Patent Court became effective. The Federal Patent Court is exclusively competent for: a. validity and infringement disputes and actions for issuing a license in respect of patents; b. ordering preliminary measures prior to the filing of a complaint as defined in letter a; c. the enforcement of…

Countries, Denmark, European Union, Procedure

(Bugge Valentin)/ /1 Comment

Among many other tasks, the Danish Government when taking over the EU Presidency as of 1 January took over the continued challenges (and problems) in connection with securing a compromise that may lead to a Unified Patent Court. Despite the intentions of the Polish presidency to land a compromise during its tenure, the issue remains…

Case Law, Procedure, Revocation, United Kingdom

(Bristows)/

The general rule in UK litigation is that the successful party is entitled to its costs. One exception to this rule, peculiar to patent cases, is a so-called ‘Earth Closet’ order. If an alleged infringer introduces a new piece of prior art, after service of its original Grounds of Invalidity, an Earth Closet order enables…

(Compulsory) license, (Indirect) infringement, France, Procedure

(Véron & Associés)/

On 8 December 2011, the presiding judge of the Tribunal de Grande Instance of Paris has rendered an order in the context of the worldwide battle between Samsung and Apple. Samsung alleged that Apple’s iPhones 4S contain chips infringing its European patents No. 1 188 269 and 1 097 516, declared essential to the UMTS standard within the framework of ETSI (European…

Case Law, Exceptions to patentability, Revocation, Spain

(Clifford Chance)/

The Supreme Court dismissed an appeal , dismissing a revocation action against the patent in suit, which protected the calcium salt of atorvastatin. The Supreme court held that (i) the Bolar provision does not apply with retrospective effect, because its origin and rationale is different from the Experimental Use Exception; and (ii.) an invention that…