On 28 February 2023, the majority of the Danish Maritime and Commercial High Court did not find sufficient grounds for rebutting the presumption of the validity of the Danish patent DK/EP 2 959 894 (the “Contested Patent”), held by Novartis, and thus decided to grant a preliminary injunction against Zentiva. Notably, though, the opposing judge…
This year’s release of Visser’s Annotated European Patent Convention, or as it is commonly known, simply “Visser” is just around the corner. Since the previous edition, updated until March 2022, there have been several law changes, as well as new case law and updates in the Guidelines. Those changes are reflected in the update, and…
Just days after the announcement of a gender equality referendum in Ireland, which will be held in November, representatives of Irish industry urged the government to hold a referendum on ratification of the Unified Patent Court Agreement on the same date. However, it seems likely this will not take place before the start of next…
Many readers of this blog are familiar with the French saisie-contrefaçon, which consists of the seizure of allegedly infringing products and all related documents, but requires a writ of summons within one month of the saisie (e.g., here). Few of the same readers have probably heard of the protective seizure (“saisie conservatoire”), which allows similar…
France, Germany and Italy are holding trilateral talks on redistribution of the competencies that were originally allocated to the London seat of the UPC’s central division among Paris, Munich and Milan. According to the German Ministry of Justice, a decision is expected shortly. A spokesperson told Kluwer IP Law: ‘Once an agreement has been reached,…
It is now almost a year since the new confidentiality regime for patent disputes in Germany entered into force. Since then, confidentiality requests have become a standard procedure in German patent litigation. Courts and counsel have translated the legal requirements into manageable routines. The Munich Regional Court even published guidance on how to proceed with…
In June 2022 the EPO announced the project “Bringing Teams Together”, introducing a new management of office space with the aim “to ensure that teams cluster in our buildings when working on site”. The project proved to be a bit challenging since the EPO management simultaneously intended to empty the Pschorrhöfe 1-4 buildings that had…
For privacy and security reasons, the Unified Patent Court has temporarily deactivated a CMS functionality linked to the opt-out procedure. The UPC reported today that in the week preceding the start of the sunrise period – which started 1 March 2023, ‘it became clear that the public API designed to retrieve public documentation from the…
February 1st, 2023, the French Supreme Court (“Cour de Cassation”) ascertained that during a saisie-contrefaçon trade secrets can only be protected by a temporary sequestration provided for in the order authorizing the saisie. Teoxane (“Teoxane”) is the owner of a European patent, the revocation of which Laboratoires Vivacy (“Vivacy”) sought by a summons filed on…
The Central Staff Committee of the European Patent Office supports the initiative of important European companies who’ve requested to do something about declining patent quality at the EPO. In a publication, the committee wrote it ‘is ready to contribute actively and constructively (…) respond to external criticism and put quality back on the EPO’s agenda’….
