The doctrine of equivalents is a staple patent law principle, addressing the tension between providing fair protection to innovative ideas and ensuring legal certainty for third parties. However, like most patent laws, the...more
12/18/2024
/ Appeals ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Doctrine of Equivalents ,
EU ,
European Patent Convention ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Inventions ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patents ,
The Hague ,
Unified Patent Court ,
Unified Patent System
In a November 12, 2024, decision, the Court of Appeal ("CoA") of the Unified Patent Court ("UPC") has clarified under which circumstances a European patent that has been opted out and has been the subject of legal proceedings...more
The Unified Patent Court ("UPC") and the unitary patent—which came into force in June 2023—were created at the request of European industry in order to benefit from a single title (the unitary patent) covering the territory...more
The Situation: Germany has no direct equivalent to the U.S. attorney-client privilege, but it offers specific legal protections for in-house counsel in certain proceedings....more
The European Patent Office ("EPO") currently requires applicants to adapt descriptions to allowable claims. This practice is risky, expensive, and not clearly grounded in the law....more
While the genus antibody claim was effectively killed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Amgen v. Sanofi, it lives on in Europe despite a few recent setbacks at the European Patent Office ("EPO") and the Unified Patent Court...more
The Situation: Even after the introduction of the European Unitary Patent Court, Germany remains a key battleground in major patent litigations. In the bifurcated German litigation system, nullity cases are heard before the...more
7/26/2024
/ Confidential Information ,
Germany ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Inventions ,
Non-Disclosure Agreement ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent Validity ,
Patents ,
Prior Art ,
Public Disclosure
On February 28, 2024, following the European Commission's four 2023 proposals, the European Parliament adopted a legislative resolution on the amended proposal to create a Unitary Supplementary Protection Certificate ("USPC")...more
The European Patent Office ("EPO") has committed to specific timelines for its new practice of accelerating opposition proceedings....more
The UPC, a single patent court for European Union Member States, has published the first statistics on its case load since its establishment in 2023. Between June 1, 2023, and January 31, 2024, a total of 196 cases were filed...more
The redistribution of competences to the Munich, Paris, and Milan central chambers takes shape and brings complexity for chemistry patents....more
In Short -
The Situation: With the introduction of the Unified Patent Court ("UPC") system in Europe, the co-ownership of patents will have material effect on patents with unitary effect ("Unitary Patent")....more
In Short -
The Situation: While the national case laws of most Unified Patent Court ("UPC") Member States generally accept infringement actions by licensees, the scope and requirements of such actions differ greatly. The...more
Judges were recruited from across Europe and appointed in accordance with the decisions of the UPC Administrative Committee. The UPC will be led by German Federal Court of Justice Judge Klaus Grabinski as president of the...more
The creation of a new European Unified Patent Court (“UPC”) and a new patent with unitary effect (“Unitary Patent”), in which almost all member states of the European Union participate, is the most important change in the...more
The previously contemplated fee for opting out of "classical" European patents from the Unified Patent Court ("UPC") system has been abolished by the UPC Preparatory Committee. The UPC Case Management System will also allow...more
An upcoming change in Section 83 of the German Patent Act ("PatG") will close the gap between the duration of patent infringement compared to the duration of invalidity proceedings in Germany. From May 1, 2022, onwards, the...more
The new PatG provides an exception to the general rule that injunctions result as a direct consequence of infringement for cases in which an immediate injunction would result in disproportionate hardship when weighing the...more
A trade secret is any information used in one’s business that derives independent economic value from being kept secret. Unlike patents, trade secrets are protected indefinitely for as long as they remain a secret. In the...more
8/19/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Competition ,
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) ,
Confidential Information ,
Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) ,
Executive Orders ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Misappropriation ,
Pleading Standards ,
Proprietary Information ,
SCOTUS ,
Trade Secrets ,
Van Buren v United States
Most trade secret misappropriation is the work of a company employee or former employee. Jones Day partners Andrea Weiss Jeffries, Steve Zadravecz, Rebecca Swindells, Dr. Christian Paul, and Jon Linas explain why strategic,...more
Recent changes to German law are expected to facilitate trade secret litigation. Dr. Christian Paul, a Munich-based partner, explains why these actions still require careful consideration of German procedural law, with a...more
Jones Day partners Dr. Christian Paul, Steve Zadravecz, Thomas Bouvet, and Andrea Weiss Jeffries explain what companies that rely on business-critical trade secrets should understand about effectively litigating trade...more
As the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is spreading around Europe and governments take steps towards slowing down the propagation of the virus, courts are reducing activities. In every jurisdiction, where efforts are...more
The UK Supreme Court's ruling in Warner Lambert v Actavis resulted from deliberations over the proper approach to matters relating to infringement of second medical use patent claims. The standard proposed by the UK Supreme...more
The Situation: For the pharmaceutical industry, supplementary protection certificates ("SPC") are probably the most valuable IP rights. While the scope of protection of an SPC is determined separately from the scope of...more
6/18/2018
/ Biosimilars ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Exports ,
Generic Drugs ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Pharmaceutical Patents ,
Prescription Drugs ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Supplementary Protection Certificate ,
Transparency