Case Reports

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...

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.

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...

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...

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.

Key points: OPT-OUT / OPT-IN / Art. 83 UPCA / TRANSITIONAL REGIMEImmediately prior to the launch of the UPC, there is heated debate among patent owners as to whether or not to declare an "opt-out"...

On 21 and 22 March a panel from EIP Latest hosted an informative webinar where they discussed everything your business needs to know about the effect of the incoming Unitary Patent and Unified Patent...

The grant of a European Patent allows patent rights to be obtained in respect of over 35 states by means of the respective validation procedures for those states.

Following news of Germany's depositing its instrument of ratification of the UPC agreement on 17 February, mark your calendars for 1 June when the Unified Patent Court (UPC) will begin operations in...

The Registry of the Unified Patent Court maintains a number of Registers which are publicly accessible via their website at www.unified-patent-court.org.

Member States of the EU that have already ratified the UPC Agreement (or in the case of Germany has indicated it will do so) and so will take part in the UPC as soon as it commences are:Austria,...

The Unitary Patent will be a single patent right, obtained via the European Patent Office, covering all EU Member States which have ratified the agreement at the patent grant date.

The project to establish a Unitary Patent in Europe and a Unified Patent Court to handle patent infringement litigation for European patents is underway again.

A recent judgment made by the Chancellor of the UK High Court in a patent dispute has highlighted that the test for obviousness (i.e. inventive step) of the subject matter of a patent does not...

By Andrew Sharples, Partner and head of EIP LifeDigital Opportunity: A Review of Intellectual Property and Growth (commonly known as The Hargreaves Review) was published on 18 May 2011.

A recent judgment has clarified the consequences for a court order based on a successful UK finding of patent infringement when that same patent is later amended at the EPO.

European Court of Justice: Case C-96/09 P A recent appeal to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in relation to the ongoing trademark dispute between Anheuser-Busch and Budvar has highlighted several...

In this case the patentee Servier had obtained an injunction against the defendant Apotex for the sale of a generic copy of the drug Perindopril Erbumine.

The Court of Appeal judgment ([2011] EWCA Civ 303) in Schütz v Werit has shed some light on the appropriate test for deciding whether a given act of reconditioning of a patented product constitutes a...

A recent case in the English courts raises questions that could affect the way global business is performed over the internet. Since 1998, databases have been protected in the UK under a ‘sui...

A few years ago, Google decided to allow businesses in the US and in the European Union to buy Google AdWords consisting of their competitors' registered trademarks so that anyone can bid on a...

A recent UK court decision has concluded that, in appropriate circumstances, post-sale confusion could be used to demonstrate a likelihood of confusion when potential trademark infringement was being...

It seems a single EU patent, covering all the EU Member States other than Spain and Italy, may become a reality. How this would be litigated, however, remains unclear.

A recent High Court decision demonstrates that a post-grant amendment may still be rejected in the UK at the discretion of the court. The amendment was rejected as even though the scope of the...

Two of the numerous factors to be weighed when deciding on UK or European Community (CTM) registration are: intent to use: still a prerequisite for a valid UK application, although not a CTM;speed of...

It is not uncommon for counterfeit goods to pass through the EU in transit to their final destination. This raises the question of whether such goods fall within the jurisdiction of the EU, and can...

Advocate General Verica Trstenjak recently gave her opinion on questions referred to the European Court of Justice by the UK Court of Appeal regarding the latest dispute in the complex on-going...

This appeal decision demonstrates the importance of considering potential patent amendments early in litigious proceedings. The appeal was concerned with two patents which were part of a larger...