While it is my impression that the IP profession, on the whole, has not had to suffer much under the current COVID-19 pandemic, the same is unfortunately not true for our patent attorney trainees. It all started in early 2020. By then about 1800 trainees had been busy for months learning and getting ready for…
Introduction The debate over standard essential patents (SEPs) often focuses on the interpretation of FRAND terms and conditions and the extent to which patent owners can refuse to license their exclusive rights to implementers, and ask courts to issue injunctions against them. What is also discussed by SEPs commentators (perhaps, to a lesser extent) is…
Regulation (EU) 2019/933, amending the Regulation (EC) No 469/2009 concerning the supplementary protection certificate for medicinal products (hereinafter referred to as the Regulation) was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 11th June 2019 and thus came into effect on 1st July 2019. The amended Regulation establishes the so-called “SPC waiver”, that excludes…
The “French style” (at least in patent law), which is generally characterized by the will to do everything at the same time (validity and infringement of the patent), takes a serious hit with a recent Paris Court of Appeal judgment: the Judges propose a fragmented approach to a pan-European infringement for which they only want…
The decision concerns the provisional enforcement of a court judgment on patent infringement. In an earlier decision in the same proceedings the Federal Court of Justice (FCJ) ruled that where the patent in suit is declared invalid the provisional enforcement of the infringement judgment is to be suspended. Now the FCJ has confirmed that the…
In a position paper published on 23 December 2020, the IP Federation in the UK has expressed concern about the uncertainties surrounding the Unified Patent Court. According to Scott Roberts, president of the IP Federation, the value of the project has diminished considerably for its members. Kluwer IP Law interviewed Roberts. The position paper states “Whilst it…
Familiar topics, new issues and a characteristic number one: welcome to the Kluwer Patent Blog’s chart with most popular items of 2020. As topics such as the EPO and the UPC usually – and also this year – dominate the top ten of most popular articles, we’d like to start with some posts ranked just…
(UPDATED) Two new constitutional complaints against ratification of the Unified Patent Court Agreement have been filed with Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court. The FCC confirmed to Kluwer IP Law it received the complaints: “Regarding the Act on the Agreement of 13 February 2013 on a Unified Patent Court, two constitutional complaints have been filed and are…
Each time I hear “TRUVADA”, the catchy chorus of the Beatles’ Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da sounds different to me… However, TV addicts or literature lovers also keen on pharmaceutical litigation should not have failed to notice a more disturbing coincidence: “Gilead” is moreover the sweet name given to the dictatorship where The Handmaid’s Tale is set –…
A recent judgment of 13 November 2020 from the Barcelona Court of Appeal (Section 15) has brought to the fore again the thorny topic of “indirect” or “contributory” infringement. The difficulty of the topic is illustrated, for example, by the fact that two very learned Judges (Judge Arnold, then in the first instance and Judge…
