Like other countries, such as Australia or Germany, a “petty” patent or “utility model” can be obtained in Spain for so-called minor inventions. They present a twofold distinction with regard to “full-fledged” patents, when it comes to examining their patentability: (i) only documents disclosed in Spain form part of the state of the art; (ii)…
According to the so-called “Duesseldorfer Besichtigungspraxis” (Duesseldorf inspection practice), a patent owner who establishes a prevailing likelihood of infringement may secure evidence by inspection of the allegedly infringing device or method by a court-appointed, independent expert. The inspection order is granted in ex-parte proceedings. Contrary to other preliminary injunctions, the required urgency is generally presumed…
The amendments of the Italian IP Code introduced by Legislative Decree no. 131 of 13 August 2010 are many and I tend to believe that there is no Italian IP lawyer who is sure to have already counted them all. Each time I have to consider a new issue for a client, I find some…
It is trite that in most jurisdictions, the grant of a patent is only a negative right, in that it does not give the patentee the right to work the invention, merely to prevent others from doing so. For example, the invention claimed may fall within the scope of a prior ‘master’ patent, of which…
In decision G2/08, available on the EPO website, the Enlarged Board of Appeal provides a problem in relation to the Swiss type claims. It announces the abolition of the use of these claims in point 7.1.4 of the Reasons: “In order to ensure legal certainty and to protect legitimate interests of applicants, the abolition of…
EC Directive 2004/48 (known as the “Enforcement Directive”) was implemented in Spain through Law 19/2006, which sought to harmonise, among other aspects, the criteria to establish damages in legal proceedings involving the infringement of intellectual property rights. In cases of patent infringement where the complainant claims profits lost or damages caused by the defendant, one…
When challenging the validity of a patent, a decision needs to be made early on as to grounds on which to rely. When it comes to allegations of anticipation and obviousness, the challenger and its advisers will need to consider whether to rely or just one or two prior art citations or to include a…
A recent appeal decision from the Danish High Court (Eastern Division) concerns the issue of whether an application for an interlocutory injunction should be granted on an ex parte basis. The case concerned (one of several) cases in Denmark regarding the Danish company H. Lundbeck A/S enforcing a process patent for its block buster API,…
Along with a number of other relevant innovations to the Italian IP Code, last August the Italian legislator eventually passed the long awaited implementation into Italian law of Directive 44/1998/EC on biotechnological inventions (see legislative decree no. 131/2010 of 13 August 2010 here). Those who are familiar with the Italian political scene will know that…
In this blog I report about how the Bundesgerichtshof (BGH) has recently eliminated some potential for conflicting decisions in Germany’s bifurcated patent litigation system. The separation of infringement and invalidity proceedings is the basis for what we call the “mouse and elephant strategy”. In the infringement proceedings the patentee tries to establish a scope of…
