Of the mainstream UK political parties, only the Liberal Democratic Party is overtly “Remain”. It has just launched its EU Parliamentary Election campaign with the somewhat surprising slogan “Bollocks to Brexit”. From an IP lawyer’s perspective, this raises an amusing question of whether copyright could subsist in such a slogan, because if so, the LibDems…
Perhaps it’s just me becoming more and more impatient with age, but I increasingly wonder why it is that so many things take so long in my home country. The litany is endless, from Berlin airport via Stuttgart 21, to any simple construction site on any German highway. From the formation of our government to…
A further interesting decision handed down by the Judges of the English Patents Court prior to the Easter break was a judgment from Nugee J concerning proceedings between E. Mishan and Hozelock relating to a UK patent and European patent, both entitled “Expandable Hose Assembly”. E. Mishan (trading as Emson) claimed that Hozelock’s expandable garden…
Not too long ago we learned of a referral question from Technical Board of Appeal 3.5.03 regarding the legal basis for holding oral proceedings before the Boards of Appeal in Haar rather than in Munich. While it does not directly relate to the legal question in the referral, a relevant consideration was recently published in…
Ice cream shop franchisor showed that franchisee misappropriated a trade secret and that it would suffer irreparable harm absent a preliminary injunction. An ice cream parlor franchisor showed that information it gave to a franchisee was not known outside the business and was restricted by confidentiality agreements and was therefore likely a trade secret, the…
The EPO published its draft Strategic Plan 2023 on 18 April 2019. It has invited all stakeholders to provide their views on the document. Those who want to provide input can do so here. The new consultation will run until 10 May 2019 and the plan is to submit the final plan to the Administrative Council…
In a patent infringement suit brought by Omega Patents against CalAmp Corp. alleging infringement of Omega’s U.S. Patent Nos. 6,346,876 (’876 patent), 6,756,885 (’885 patent), 7,671,727 (’727 patent), and 8,032,278 (’278 patent), the federal district court in Orlando’s judgment of no invalidity of the asserted claims was affirmed, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the…
The run up to the Easter vacation is always a busy time in the English Patents Court as litigants seek have applications determined to set the direction of travel for the next period of the case and Judges, understandably, try and clear their desks before the break. 2019 was no exception to this rule and…
In our blog of last December, we reported that China has established a new IP Tribunal within the Supreme People’s Court (the “SPC”) as a national IP appellate court akin to the federal circuit in the United States. The new SPC IP Tribunal commenced operation from Jan 1, 2019 in Beijing. Interim Judgment On March…
Last week the Board of Appeal issued a decision holding that Google’s patent application 04784004.6 was unallowable on the ground of lack of inventive step. Amongst other things, the decision contains useful guidance relevant to applications containing a mixture of technical and non-technical subject matter. The take-homes from the decision are as follows: 1. A…
