When it comes to infringement of patents, the doctrine of equivalence has gained some more attention in the last few years in German courts and indeed also in some of my earlier posts on this blog (see here). In this context, two decisions of the Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof) in 2011 have set up…
As readers know well, over the last few years courts around Europe have handed down several ground-breaking decisions on the scope of “second medical use” claims and, in particular, the activities required of third parties to guarantee the fair protection of such claims. Most of these decisions have revolved around the Lyrica® (pregabalin) patent, which…
Masaba Inc. did not infringe five Superior Industries patents that disclosed a conveyor system for drive-over truck dumps and a braced, telescoping support strut, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled (Superior Industries, Inc. v. Masaba, Inc., June 2, 2016, Hughes, T.). Because the district court correctly construed the claim terms…
Nine claims of a SynQor patent for a high efficiency power converter were anticipated by the combination of two prior art references that taught DC-to-DC power converters for pulsed loads, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled (Vicor Corp. v. SynQor, Inc., March 13, 2015, Clevenger, R.). Because the combined references…
The Board emphasized that there was a relation between who was to be considered to be the skilled person for judging inventive step on one hand and the choice of the closest prior art on the other hand. A general problem to modify a product from one field so that it could be used in…
Inventions regarding a method of improving the yield of triploid seedless watermelons by pollination with a specific type of diploid water melon are not to be regarded as an essentially biological process for the production of plants and are therefore not excluded from patentability under Article 53(b) EPC. These biotechnological inventions according to Rule 26(2),…
Direct access to seized documents, selected from a larger pool of previously seized evidence, is denied on the basis of Dutch procedural provisions relating to Directive 2004/48/EC, because the defendant has not been allowed prior review of the seized selection. The court only allows access to a limited selection obtained by sufficient specific key word…
The CoA Karlsruhe held that the fact that a referral is pending before the CJEU regarding the issues of the criteria for raising the FRAND defense (C-170/13 Huawei) does not justify the suspension of the enforcement of an infringement judgment issued against a defendant. The court also expressed their expectation that – even after a…
Please click here to find US patent cases from the the U.S. Supreme Court, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals with a detailed summary of each case. Recently added from our US IP Law Daily service: Soverain Software LLC v. Victoria’s Secret Direct Brand Management, LLC, United States Court…
