(Indirect) infringement, Germany, Injunction, Procedure, Scope of protection

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On the defendant’s side, knowing what the patent dispute is all about is essential for your strategy. Not only do you need to adjust your non-infringement arguments to the plaintiff’s assertions concerning how the features of the claim are fulfilled in the attacked embodiment. Even more importantly, the scope of an infringement verdict is determined…

Enforcement, Germany, Injunction

(Hoffmann Eitle)/

An article in the well-known IP magazine GRUR last year carried the heading “Do exhibitors at trade fairs in Germany enjoy immunity from the courts?” The author came to the conclusion that this question had to be answered in the affirmative after he had read the Federal Court of Justice decision “Pralinenform II” (a trademark…

Scope of protection, Spain

(Clifford Chance)/

In recent years, the Commercial Courts of Barcelona have been called on to decide whether a claim depicting a Markush formula that did not show the stereochemistry of the compound protects only the racemate or also its enantiomers. The debate emerged in the context of an application for a preliminary injunction filed by Novartis based…

Exceptions to patentability, United States of America

(Foley&Lardner LLP)/

On March 20, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc., holding that Prometheus’ claims directed to methods of optimizing the dose of specific drugs used in the treatment of specific conditions are invalid under 35 USC § 101 because they impermissibly claim laws of nature….

Germany, Procedure

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Landmark European Patent Cases

by Rüdiger Pansch for rospatt osten pross An interesting paper comes with the case management directions of the Munich District Court after the complaint is served upon defendants. It titles “The new AGB of the Patent Chambers” while AGB stands for “Allgemeine Geschäftsbedingungen” meaning General Terms and Conditions, i.e. fixed terms that one party of…

European Union, Poland

(Allen & Overy)/

The Polish Presidency put a lot of effort into the proposed regulation on unitary patent protection, the translation arrangements, and the court system for patent litigation. However, due to the lack of a common agreement among member states on the location of the central patent court, the signing ceremony of the uniform patent system scheduled…

Inventive step, Novelty, United States of America

(Foley&Lardner LLP)/

The “first-to-file” provisions of the United States “America Invents Act (AIA)” take effect on March 16, 2013. Because of other changes to the U.S. patent system, this date will be just as important to patent applications being filed around the world as it will be to those being filed in the United States. Here, I…

Case Law, European Union, Procedure, SPC

(Brinkhof)/

The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that Article 13 of the old SPC Regulation (EEC 1768/92, identical to article 13 of the “new” SPC Regulation (EC469/2009) in conjunction with Article 36 of the Pediatric Regulation (EC 1901/2006), allow for the grant of an SPC of negative duration. The additional term provided by…

Austria, Case Law, Enforcement, Entitlement, Extent of Protection, Mechanical Engineering, Procedure, Scope of protection

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The right to an unpatented invention does not entitle to its exclusive use; it ceases to exist if the invention is made public without patent protection. The right to an unpatented invention encompasses no more than (i) the right to file a patent application and (ii) the right to claim the patent, in case a…