Case Reports

Weathering IP challenges: how can patents help offshore wind innovators?

Over the past few years, a worldwide patent dispute has been rumbling between two giants of the renewables sector, GE and Siemens Gamesa. Although that storm has now subsided, following the recent...

Seizing a greener future for the UK

The announcement this week from the UK Government of funding for new Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) schemes has had a mixed reception. It's a shame the announcement was hand-in-hand with new oil...

Unnamed inventors can benefit from s.40 employee compensation, but only if you get there in time

Parsons v Convatec [2023] EWHC 1535 (Pat) Background In this judgment of Mr Justice Zacaroli in the Patents Court, it was held that s.40 of the Patents Act 1977 did not require the inventor, Dr...

Early statistics regarding interest in unitary patent protection

The EPO has recently added ‘Requests for unitary effect' to its Statistics & Trends Centre. The Statistics & Trends Centre provides a dashboard that now gives information about requests for unitary...

Preachin’ Pride Blues

Those of you who have read my work before, who know me, or who know of me, might reasonably expect this piece to be…vitriolic, shall we say? You may be bracing yourself for a story that starts with...

UPCA - Harmonisation of Infringement

Over a decade ago, in 2013, when I was writing for the IPKat, I wrote a post opining that the UPC Agreement should produce a harmonisation of the substantive law of patent infringement across...

High Court maintains status quo on SPCs: Combination patent cannot get extension using Marketing Authorisation of single active agent

Introduction Newron Pharmaceuticals SPA (patentee) appealed a decision of the Comptroller General of Patents to refuse its Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) application on the ground that it...

Mobility-as-a-Service – have you protected your assets from the competition?

Mobility-as-a-Service is envisioned as the tool to bring about a greener and more sustainable world and the backbone to ensuring people have a seamless customer experience in achieving it.

No Leg to Stand On: Claimant left out of pocket as hopeless case fails to establish design for cargo trousers is original or infringed

KF Global Brands Ltd v Lead Wear Ltd & Ors [2023] EWHC Introduction This case concerned allegations of infringement of UK unregistered design rights (UKUDR) which were claimed to subsist in the...

Update on Unitary Patent request filing statistics

The first batch of unitary patents was registered this week. According to the European Patent Register, 609 requests for unitary effect have been allowed and published on Monday 12 June 2023.

Advanced Bionics v Med-El – Court of Appeal upholds invalidity of patent

This case concerns European Patent EP 3138605, relating to a cochlear implant, modified to allow the wearer to undergo MRI scanning. A cochlear implant is a small electronic device that assists a...

Unitary Patent Day 2023

Today is Unitary Patent day!In principle, a Unitary Patent could be obtained for a European Patent granted from 1 June 2023. But in practice, the European Patent Office only publishes grant of...

Sandoz v BMS – Court of Appeal grapples with plausibility again

Sandoz Limited v Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Ireland Unlimited Company; Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Limited v Myers Squibb Holdings Ireland Unlimited Company [2023] EWCA Civ 472 The Supreme...

The UPC is now open!

After more than 50 years in the making, the Unified Patent Court finally launches today – 1 June 2023. This represents the most significant development in European patent law and practice since the...

The UPC: I've done nothing about it - will it be okay?

Owners of EP applications and patents will have almost certainly have had requests by now asking whether they wish to opt their patents/applications out of the jurisdiction of the UPC.