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 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 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
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: On May 28 and 29, 2018, the European Commission ("Commission") published two studies aimed at examining the economic and legal impacts of the European Union's regime on Supplementary Protection Certificates...more
6/18/2018
/ EU ,
Incentives ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Medical Devices ,
Patents ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Pharmaceutical Patents ,
R&D ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Research and Development
The Decision: The French Cour de cassation, in a case concerning a dosage regime patent, recently clarified the "plausibility" requirement, an element of sufficiency of disclosure or inventive step.
The Result: The wording...more