Scope of protection, United Kingdom

(Bristows)/ /1 Comment

The following summarises another interesting decision for the rejuvenated Patents County Court which is continuing to flourish as a forum for smaller intellectual property disputes of all kinds. Merck is the proprietor of European Patent (EP (UK) 1 480 717) which, in relation to the product montelukast (Singulair, used for the treatment of adult and…

Case Law, Chemical Engineering, Inventive step, Netherlands

(Brinkhof)/

The Court of Appeal confirms the revocation by the District Court of a patent relating to a coformulation of timolol and dorzolamide for the treatment of glaucoma , for lack of inventive step. The combination of these two substances was disclosed before the priority date as a concomitant therapy. The skilled person would turn this…

(Cross-border) jurisdiction, Procedure, Switzerland

(MLL Legal Ltd.)/

The numerus clausus of legally permissible pieces of evidence in the new Swiss Civil Procedure Code (CPC) – unlike in many other codes of civil procedure – does not provide for private expert opinions. Only court-appointed expert opinions are foreseen in the CPC. The question therefore arises, how the new Swiss Patent Court should deal…

United States of America

(Foley&Lardner LLP)/

While many countries have laws against “double patenting” that prevent an Applicant from obtaining more than one patent on the same invention, the U.S. also bars Applicants from obtaining a second patent on an invention that is deemed to be an obvious variation of an invention claimed in a granted patent. The judicially created doctrine…

Italy, Novelty, Validity

(Trevisan & Cuonzo)/

By decision of 23 March 2012, the Supreme Court decided a case between two competitors in the field of steel products and machinery, concerning in particular the alleged infringement of two Italian patents covering a winding up mechanism for steel wire. The alleged infringer had counterclaimed invalidity based on prior disclosure, claiming in particular that…

Denmark, Inventive step, Novelty, Validity

(Bugge Valentin)/

In a recent decision (16.5.2012) the Supreme Court in Denmark has ruled on the requirement of creative step that applies to Danish utility models and serves the same purpose as inventive step in respect of patents. The utility model-in-suit had been invalidated by the Danish Patent Office and that decision was upheld by the Maritime…

TRIPS

(Clifford Chance)/

TRIPS has historically been criticized on the grounds that it makes access to medicines in developing countries more difficult. To address this concern, on 30 August 2003 the World Trade Organization (“WTO”)’s General Council approved a Decision aimed at implementing the famous paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration of 14 November 2001. To sum up,…

Case Law, Enforcement, Germany, Injunction

(Hoffmann Eitle)/

The presentation of a product at an exhibition within Germany, constitutes use of the shape of the product (protected by trademark law) in the course of trade for advertising purposes, and this is therefore no “offering” or “putting on the market” that product in Germany . Rather, evidence must be provided which shows that the…

Case Law, Electrical Engineering, Germany, Inventive step, Validity

(Hoffmann Eitle)/

When seeking to improve a data structure prescribed in an international standard, the skilled person would consider mechanisms already described in the standard when solving the identified technical problem. If the standard provides a manageable number of possible solutions, each having specific advantages and disadvantages, this provides an incentive to take each of the solutions…