With the recent decisions of the EPO Administrative Council CA/D 2/10 and CA/D 12/10 of 26 October 2010, the provisions originally intended to expedite the examination proceedings before the EPO and to reduce the average time needed by the EPO for grant will be relaxed. One of these amendments will enter into force soon, i.e. on May 1, 2011.
On 13 December 2007, the last amendment of the European Patent convention (“EPC”) came into force. Among other aspects, the amendment introduced a new paragraph (paragraph 3) in Article 138 of the EPC, which reads as follows: “In proceedings before the competent court or authority relating to the validity of the European patent, the proprietor…
As many readers of this blog already know, last October the Italian Antitrust Authority (Autorità garante della concorrenza e del mercato – AGCM), following a complaint filed by Ratiopharm, started investigations against Pfizer aimed at ascertaining whether Pfizer’s behaviour in the enforcement of its patent rights on the drug Xalatan amounts to abuse of a…
Germany is still busy handling its first big wave of patent troll litigation. At this stage it seems that some trolls may have underestimated the power of bulk defence. In a case concerning mobile telecommunication, a troll picked the last member of the distribution chain, a network provider, as defendant in patent infringement proceedings. As…
It is difficult to over-estimate the importance of expert evidence in patents cases before the English Court. In a typical trial well over half of the time will be devoted to cross-examination of the parties’ experts in front of the Judge who will be guaranteed to listen carefully and form an opinion. The choice of…
The German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) recently further confirmed the basic tendency of bringing national case law into line with that of the European Patent Office. In the decision “Wiedergabe topographischer Informationen” (Reproduction of topographical information)BGH.Wiedergabe.topografischer.Informationen.X.ZR.47-07, the Federal Court of Justice had to deal with a method and device for the perspective display of…
H. Lundbeck A/S (hereinafter referred to as Lundbeck) is the holder of European patent EP 0 347 066 entitled “new enantiomers and their isolation”, which designates France and was filed on 1 June 1989; it claims priority of a British patent dated 14 June 1988. The invention relates to the two new enantiomers of the antidepressant drug Citalopram and the use of…
For many years it has been heavily disputed in Danish and Nordic legal theory, whether the doctrine of equivalents should or should not be accorded weight in the construction of the protective scope of a patent. While on the one hand it has been argued that the application of the doctrine could lead to –…
Interesting decision on prima facie validity of European patents in Belgian PI proceedings: the respectieve claims of the parties have to be taken into consideration to assess the consequences of an affected prima facie validity. By a decision of 16 November 2010, the President of the Antwerp Commercial Court held that the prima facie validity…
The Patent Chambers of the Regional Court Munich headed by Judge Guntz and Judge Kaess, introduced a revised procedure to accelerate patent infringement litigation proceedings at the end of 2009. After one year, the new proceedings are well accepted by practitioners. The new proceedings generally procure more time and cost efficient patent infringement proceedings. The Munich Patent Chambers aim at offering an attractive court for patent litigation in competition with the popular courts in Düsseldorf and Mannheim.
