The FCJ decided in the recently published decision “Wundverband” [Wound Dressing] “Moelnlycke Health Care v. BSN Medical” (docket X ZR 70/12) on 19 February 2013 that an exclusive licensee is (in part) a legal successor of the patentee. As a consequence, as long as patentee’s claims (including such claims concerning the time-span after grant of an exclusive license) are pending at another German court, the exclusive licensee has no right to sue with regard to the same subject matter due to the force of res judicata of the judgement against the legal successor and the lis pendens rule.
Facts
The FCJ decision is concerned with a domestic case focussed on German civil procedural law, [...]
The PI judge in the District Court of The Hague held that under certain circumstances, provisional cross-border jurisdiction can be derived from art. 31 Regulation (EC) 44/2001, which would require a “real connecting link” between the sought measures and the jurisdiction of a contracting state (ECJ C-391/95, Van Uden/Decoline). However, in the present case there are insufficient connecting points for such cross border preliminary injunction, since it’s initiated exclusively against parties without residence in the Netherlands.
A summary of this case will be posted on http://www.Kluweriplaw.com
[...]The Court of Appeal held that the duty to compensate the successful party’s legal costs in intellectual property proceedings, pursuant to Art. 14 of the Enforcement directive, also applies to invalidity claims, counterclaims and defenses by the alleged infringing party threatened with patent enforcement. To deny such compensation in respect of nullity claims or defenses that constitute an important defense against enforcements of intellectual property rights would be contrary to Article 6 ECHR.
A summary of this case will be posted on http://www.Kluweriplaw.com
[...]In its “Leflunomid” decision of 24 July 2012 (Case X ZR 126/09), the FCJ declared a patent claim to be invalid which covered a combination of leflunomide and teriflunomide, on the grounds that it had long been known in the prior art (for 100 years) that some leflunomide spontaneously and unavoidably converts teriflunomide over time (by a ring opening process). The combination was therefore obvious to the expert. The decision will be published in the Kluwer IP case databank.
The plaintiff in the case at issue was a generic company which had launched what it thought was a patent-free mono-product containing just leflunomide. However, due to the conversion of some leflunomide into terifl [...]
In a recent decision (case no. 4A_443/2012) the Swiss Federal Supreme Court had to deal with a dispute between the German Robert Bosch GmbH, which filed suit against the Swiss Federal Confederation based on the Swiss portion of EP 0 741 373. The decision exclusively focuses on the question whether the Swiss Federal Patent Court has jurisdiction to decide Robert Bosch’s injunction and damages claims. The Swiss Federal Supreme Court confirmed that the new Swiss Federal Patent Court is exclusively competent to decide Robert Bosch’s permanent injunction against the Swiss Federal Confederation. However, the Federal Supreme Court stated that the Federal Patent Court is not competent to decid [...]
Spain adopted the optional clause in Article 65 of the EPC, which requires a translation of the patent filed with the national patent office within 3 months of publication of the patent by EPO. The Supreme Court decided that this term starts on the date of publication of the announcement of the granting of the patent by EPO.
A summary of this case will be posted on http://www.Kluweriplaw.com
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