I have already written about the investigation launched last October by the Italian antitrust authority (AGCM) on an alleged abuse of a dominant position by Pfizer in relation to the manner in which Pfizer enforced or attempted to enforce its patent rights. Well, this is actually the first case of this type in Italy, but…
The Appeal Court Karlsruhe has recently issued a judgement in a preliminary injunction proceeding. Plaintiff has sought to obtain a confirmation of the first instance’s judgement. Defendant had filed the appeal against the judgement by which he had been ordered to cease and desist from producing, offering and marketing the patent infringing devices after the…
The case concerned the question of whether the sale of an incomplete kit of parts to a customer outside of the UK could constitute infringement of a patent for the assembled device for the purposes of section 60(1)(a) of the Patents Act 1977 (based on Article 25 CPC). The judge (Arnold J) also provided some…
The holder of a SPC fearing that competitors submit before the expiry of its title a tender in response to invitations to tender, for a products’ supply after the expiry of the title, requested an interlocutory injunction to prevent an imminent infringement. Therefore, by three orders issued on 19 August 2010, the Judge in preliminary proceedings at the Tribunal de Grande Instance of Paris deals with two important questions, already known by other courts in Europe: which elements can characterise the imminence of the infringement? is an offer formulated during the validity of the title an infringement although the supply of the products at issue would take place after the expiry of the title?
The new edition of the bestseller The Annotated European Patent Convention (Derk Visser, 2010) will be published on paper on 15 December 2010, but is already available for subscribers on www.KluwerPatentLaw.com. The 18th edition of the book has been updated till 15 November 2010. It contains the consolidated text of the EPC accompanied by extensive…
This judgement is one of many issued in the worldwide litigation pending between Novartis and Johnson & Johnson concerning Novartis’ patent for ophthalmically compatible extended wear contact lenses. The decision contains a recapitulation of all possible grounds for invalidity of a patent. The Court rejected the detailed claims of invalidity for lack of sufficiency, dealt…
In a recent post of mine I have reported that by decision of 29 July 2010, the Italian Supreme Administrative Court (Consiglio di Stato) had tackled the issue of whether the Italian drugs regulatory authority (Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco – AIFA) should or should not consider the existence of a patent when adopting decisions relating…
Once again, the German Federal Supreme Court has underlined the primacy of the patent claim over the patent’s description. The technical problem to be solved by the invention is to be established by virtue of the patent claim only. In consequence, a broad patent claim must not be limited by a specific technical problem expressed…
The UK has long been considered a favourable jurisdiction for pharmaceutical patent holders to seek an interim or preliminary injunction. In particular, from 2001 the English Courts have imposed an obligation for generics companies to “clear the way” (i.e. obtain a declaration of non-infringement or start invalidity proceedings in respect of any relevant patents they…
The Court of Appeal allowed Grimme’s appeal, holding that Grimme’s patent for an agricultural machine for harvesting and separating potatoes (from other materials such as earth, clods, stones, weeds or the like) featuring rubber rollers, was inventive. Of particular interest was the Court of Appeal’s clarification of the law of contributory infringement (s.60(2) Patents Act…
