The strategic management of IP requires a new understanding of what IP is and what role it can play in a corporate context. Understanding IP as an internal resource to a firm rather than a negative right, allows a firm to exploit IP beyond its current usage. Genuine IP meets all the criteria of what…
On 14 October 2020, the Swiss Federal Council published a preliminary draft of a revised version of the Swiss Patent Act (R-PatA; see current PatA). Further official documents in German/Italian/French can be found here: Explanatory Notes. The Swiss Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) published additional information in English here and here. Stakeholders are invited to…
The appeal court confirmed the decision of the first instance court that CDVI’s European patent was invalid due to lack of inventive step. However, the decision raises questions in relation to what may be considered to be common general knowledge. Case date: 23 June 2020 Case number: 200.255.497/01 Court: Court of Appeal of The Hague A full…
The FCJ decided that submissions by the parties which are expressly intended for the court only and not for the opposing party may not be included in the court file. As a consequence, they may not be relied on by the court and may not be disclosed to the opposing party for the purposes of…
In these days and times, we are constantly reminded how important and how endangered seemingly simple concepts are such as truth, facts, science and trust. Hannah Arendt, the famous Jewish German-born American political philosopher, wrote about seventy years ago in her first major work “The Origins of Totalitarism” The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is…
The “Code on the Amendment of the Code of Civil Procedure and of Some Other Laws” entered into force in Turkey recently. This Code focusses on the principle of procedural economy and acceleration of the judicial process. One of the Code’s amendments important for patent law practice concerns the extension of the legal period in…
On 15 October 2020 Meade J. handed down his first ever written judgment in his new role as a Judge of the High Court in MSD v Wyeth. The neutral citation for the case is [2020] EWHC 2636 (Pat) and a link to the judgment is found here. The Judge had heard the case back…
By Dr Simon Klopschinski As reported previously on this blog, the German ratification process for the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (UPC) has been started anew after the Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfG) had declared the previous ratification act void because it had not been approved by parliament with the required 2/3 majority. Now there…
St. Jude Medical failed to show that challenged claims of patent owned by Snyders had been anticipated by other patents, nor did it prove that a particular combination demonstrated obviousness. Claims of a patent directed to an artificial heart valve manufactured by Snyders Heart Valve LLC and a system for inserting the valve were not…
As Bob Hudec explained in his legendary The GATT Legal System and World Trade Diplomacy, GATT’s (since 1995, WTO) long-standing practice of seeking to adopt decisions by consensus finds its roots in 1947, when the then 23 parties to GATT were a small club of good friends. The proposition that a friend might impose a…
