The Federal Court of Justice confirmed the legal reasoning of the Federal Patent Court that a company that continued the business of another company, while it was founded independently from the continued company and does not take over the trade name under which it conducted business, is not bound by a non-contest clause between the…
The European Court of Justice held that Article 3(c) of EEC Directive no. 1768/92, in light of Article 3(2) of EC Directive no. 1610/96, does not oppose the granting of an SPC to the holder of a basic patent for a product for which, at the moment of filing the application for the SPC, one…
According to the District Court of The Hague, Administrative division, Article 19 (2) of the SPC Regulation on medicinal products prohibits the ‘opposition’ in a national procedure by a third party against the grant of a pediatric extension of the duration of a Supplementary Protection Certificate. Third parties may submit an application for revocation of…
The Board of Appeal decided that the following applies as regards to sufficiency of disclosure: (1) the skilled person should be able to realise without undue burden substantially any embodiment falling in the ambit of a claim on the basis of the disclosure and/or common general knowledge; (2) the objection of lack of sufficient disclosure…
The selection of explicitly disclosed borderline values defining several (sub)ranges, in order to form a new (narrower) subrange, is not contestable under Article 123 (2) EPC when the ranges belong to the same list. However, the combination of an individual range from this list with another individual range from a second list that relates to…
On 30 July 2009, the Commercial Court of Granada ordered an ex parte preliminary injunction against two companies that had obtained authorisation to market generics of sustained-release pharmaceutical compositions of Fluvastatin in Spain. Interestingly, on 27 April 2009, Commercial Court number 3 of Madrid had rejected a request for a preliminary injunction against other companies…
The Bulgarian Patent Office (BPO) revoked patent BG 61365 and published an announcement of the revocation in its official bulletin. The revocation was appealed by AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LR. The Court held the decision of the BPO invalid and annulled it as the decision was not in written form and the mere publication in the official…
In these infringement proceedings initiated by Agfa against Xingraphics the Court held Agfa’s patent valid and dismissed Xingraphics cross border declaration of non-infringement due to lack of jurisdiction. Agfa’s infringement claim was dismissed as it was not sufficiently substantiated. Agfa was not allowed to supplement its evidence, since it had failed in a previous stage…
The Barcelona Court of Appeal confirmed a preliminary injunction ordered by Commercial Court number 4 of Barcelona on 9 June 2008 preventing the launch of several generics of Atorvastatin. One of the main arguments raised by the defendants in their appeal was that the company that had filed the application for a preliminary injunction did…
The High Court dismissed Novartis’ claim for infringement of its EP(UK) patent for ophthalmically compatible extended wear contact lenses. Although Novartis established that the defendants’ product falls within certain claims of the patent, and successfully resisted Johnson & Johnson’s novelty and obviousness attacks, the patent was found invalid for insufficiency. The Court held it would…
