In a decision of 9 February 2012, the Court of Appeal of Milan decided a case concerning the ownership of the rights over an invention allegedly made in the framework of a work-made-for-hire relationship. The case is interesting as Italian law does not explicitly regulate the case of inventions made for hire. Articles 64 and…
As has been widely reported in the IP and wider press, a major breakthrough was made at a political level on 29 June 2012 on the long-running EU Unitary Patent and Unified Patents Court dossier. Importantly, the agreement reached included a significant amendment to the previous proposals, whereby provisions would be deleted from the draft…
One of the points of contention in cases where inventive step is discussed is which expert is better suited to express an opinion on whether or not the invention would have been obvious for the person skilled in the art. English Courts, for example, have a long-standing tradition of carefully scrutinising the experts presented by…
In 2007 in Nichia v Argos* the UK’s most senior full-time patents judge at the time, Jacob LJ, held that disclosure should no longer be available as a matter of course on standard issues such as obviousness in patent cases. This came as a breath of fresh air to many IP practitioners in the UK…
Practitioners and applicants have been wondering how the USPTO would respond to the July 20, 2012, U.S. Supreme Court decision in Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc., which held that Prometheus’ personalized medicine method claims could not be patented because they were directed to a law of nature, and so excluded from patent-eligibility under 35 USC…
In the decision T 1621/09 of the Boards of Appeal of the EPO, it was decided that late filed arguments of the appellant amended the case to such an extent that their admittance lay within the Board’s discretion, even though the new arguments were based on facts and evidence already in the proceedings. Having found so the Board, exercising its discretion, did not admit the new arguments into the proceedings.
The Higher Regional Court Dusseldorf decided on 26 April 2012 (docket I-2 U 18/12) that the admissibility (under Article 27 BR) of exclusive licensee’s patent infringement action despite pending NDA proceedings against patentee in another Member State depends on whether the declaratory judgment will have the force of res judicata against licensee. This must be…
by Stefan Lieck In the judgement dated 12/01/2012 (file no. I ZB 43/11), the Federal Supreme Court decided on the question as to whether an administrative fine is to be imposed on the managing director of a limited liability company [GmbH] if previously, both the GmbH as well as its managing director were ordered, upon…
On 20 March 2012, the Tribunal de Grande Instance of Paris rendered its decision in the case relating to raloxifene, a molecule useful for treating or preventing osteoporosis in post-menopausal women, opposing Teva to Eli Lilly. This decision raises many questions, first concerning drug patents in particular (patentability of second medical use, patentability of the resolution of…
Today it seems to be commonplace that without a patent system people would be less motivated to invest time and resources into making inventions that may foster technological progress. What is less clear is where the origins of this concept should be traced. Ancient Greece, which made so many contributions to knowledge, neglected the practical…
