Case Reports

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.

On 29 March 2022, the Court of Appeal handed down judgment in relation to appeals made by the Claimants (Neurim and Flynn) on two issues. Overturning Marcus Smith J's decisions, the Court of Appeal,...

In the latest flurry of judgments to arise from the Neurim v Mylan (now trading as Viatris) battle over Neurim's insomnia patent and Mylan's presence on the market with its generic version, we report...

Loonshot = an idea that's not just big, it seems mad to even try - Safi BahcallRobot-assisted surgery is a hot area in Medtech. The number of patent filings in robotic surgery system (patent...

The US member of an international group of companies has successfully disputed that it has been duly served via the office of its UK subsidiary.

BackgroundAs shown by the figure above, the applications in question are European stage of an application under the Patent Cooperation treaty (PCT) and its divisional applications.

ASR Interiors Limited v 1) AWS Trading Limited and 2) Giatalia International LimitedA design rights case that provides an example of the wrong way to give video evidence.

In a clash of a Cantonese restaurant called CHINA TANG and a Chinese takeaway also called CHINA TANG, the former succeeds.Background The Claimants in this case run a Cantonese restaurant called...

Following on from Mr Justice Meade's judgment on the preliminary issues in the re-match between Neurim (and Flynn) and Generics (UK) Ltd (now trading as Viatris but formerly Mylan) concerning a...

A design, which is no doubt familiar to most readers, has been held invalid by Recorder Douglas Campbell QC in a recent IPEC decision (here).BackgroundThe Claimant, Mr Erol, brought a claim against...

This judgment concerns a three-fold application by the Defendants (together "KnitPro") brought in the context of a long running trade mark dispute relating to knitting needles.

With a back catalogue to rival Bob Dylan, the latest development in the Neurim – Mylan battle over Mylan's generic melatonin product saw Mr Justice Meade referee the trial of preliminary issues in...

We reported last year that the Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court (UPC) were progressing. The main hurdle left to clear was sufficient countries ratifying the Protocol on the Provisional...

In Fleur Tehrani v Hamilton Bonaduz AG & Ors [2021] EWHC 3457 (IPEC), heard before the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, ("IPEC") the court conducted an assessment of the validity of a patent...

BackgroundOriginal Beauty (“Claimants”) alleged infringement of their unregistered design rights under UK and EU law and that the defendants had passed off their brand “Oh Polly” (“Defendants”) as a...

The Court of Appeal has upheld the first instance judgment in Penhallurick v MD5 Limited and agreed that MD5 Limited ("MD5") still owns the copyright of the works in this dispute; and thus dismissing...