According to article 66 of the Spanish Patents Act, in case of moral damages the patent owner will be entitled to compensation even if the existence of an economic damage has not been proven. In addition, according to article 68 “the holder of a patent may also claim for indemnification for damage resulting from the…
As a foreign spectator of the litigation between Actavis and Eli Lilly (Alimta®) before the English Patents Court (the Hon. Mr. Justice Arnold), this author was fascinated by the ease with which the Court allowed Actavis to add endless new petitions to its declaratory non-infringement action (“DNA”), particularly taking into account that the DNA was…
The Spanish Patents and Trademarks Office (“SPTO”) has submitted the draft of the Implementing Regulations of the new Spanish Patents Act, which is due to come into force on 1 April 2017, for public consultation. In general, anybody familiar with the Implementing Regulations to the European Patent Convention (“EPC”) would not have great difficulty navigating…
The Mobile World Congress (“MWC”) is one of the largest trade events taking place in Barcelona. Due to its importance, all relevant institutions, including regional and local governments, do their very best each year to help make the event as successful as possible. These efforts have resulted, for example, in the construction of a new…
As readers well know, according to article 56 of the European Patent Convention “an invention shall be considered as involving an inventive step if, having regard to the state of the art, it is not obvious to a person skilled in the art.” In practice, the application of this article requires factual and legal assessments…
On 30 November of 2015, the Barcelona Court of Appeal handed down a judgment which has further confirmed that a company outsourcing the production of a product to a third party is subject to the “strict” liability rule applicable to “manufacturers”, even if the actual product is manufactured by another company. This judgment has resolved…
Andorra has a well-deserved reputation as a wonder of nature. In spite of its tiny size (468 Km2) it offers the best of both worlds: endless trekking tracks leading you to the most remote lakes and peaks in summer, ski resorts with up to 193 km of slopes in a single resort in winter and,…
Readers will not be surprised on reading that the new Spanish Patent Act, which is due to come into force on 1 April 2017, establishes a remuneration right in favour of employees who have made an invention when their personal contribution and the importance of the invention clearly exceed the explicit or implicit contents of…
The assessment of inventive step is a legal assessment which can be reviewed by the Supreme Court through what is known as the “cassational appeal”. The Supreme Court confirms the validity and suitability of the “problem-and-solution approach” to assess the inventive step requirement and that it is not sufficient that the expert in the field…
Now that Italy has changed its mind and joined, Spain has become the only EU member state to stay out of the Unitary Patent (UP) system. How good or bad is this for the country and its companies? And will anything change because of the CJEU’s rejection of the Spanish complaints against the UP on…
