Contrary to established case law and practice, the Higher Regional Court of Vienna stayed preliminary injunction proceedings in a patent infringement matter and conducted an oral hearing. The proceedings were stayed until the EPO’s Technical Board of Appeal’s decision, confirming the validity of the patent in suit, was available in writing; the oral hearing was…
As readers know well, over the last few years courts around Europe have handed down several ground-breaking decisions on the scope of “second medical use” claims and, in particular, the activities required of third parties to guarantee the fair protection of such claims. Most of these decisions have revolved around the Lyrica® (pregabalin) patent, which…
One month after the UK referendum, discussion has deepened and several papers have been published about the Brexit vote and the Unitary Patent system. Is it possible to both save the system and keep the UK in? EPO president Benoît Battistelli thinks the best case scenario would be for the UK to ‘go ahead as…
On 24 June 2016, the Full Federal Court of Australia upheld an appeal from a first instance decision which gave a broad construction to an omnibus claim in the case of GlaxoSmithKline Australia Pty Ltd v Reckitt Benckiser Healthcare (UK) Ltd [2016] FCAFC 90. Reckitt’s claim against GSK included allegations of infringement of various claims (including…
Can the Unitary Patent system still enter into force? Is it attractive without the UK or will companies rather stick with the established patent system as in force right now? According to Dr. Axel Walz, co-founder of the IP Dispute Resolution Forum (IPDR) in Munich, these topics have been discussed a lot among German colleagues…
President Benoit Battistelli of the European Patent Office hopes the United Kingdom will stay in the Unitary Patent system despite the Brexit vote of 23 June 2016. He has written this in a blogpost on the EPO website. Battistelli stresses ‘it is entirely up to the UK authorities to determine whether they want to participate…
Yesterday I have already reported about the annual Premier Cercle conference in Munich. Besides the obligatory discussions on the Brexit, the most important new element we could learn at the conference was the information from the Preparatory Committee on the number of judges that have applied for the UPC. Everybody who wished to apply for…
Today, the 4th annual conference of Premier Cercle regarding the Unitary Patent and the Unified Patent Court took place in Munich. It will be no surprise that the outcome of the UK referendum was the “elephant in the room” during the conference. Nevertheless, everybody in the room agreed that the UK political situation may and…
Despite the UK’s Brexit vote, the preparations for the Unitary Patent and the Unified Patent Court will go on as planned. The UPC Preparatory Committee and the EPO Select Committee have declared this in a joint statement, issued on 1 July 2016. According to the statement, ‘last week’s vote in the United Kingdom in favour…
On June 17, 2016, the Danish Maritime and Commercial Court rendered judgement in a patent case between AstraZeneca and Teva and Accord regarding the validity of the DK part of EP 0 907 364. The patent-in-suit concerned a new formulation of the already known pharmaceutical substance quetiapine in a sustained release comprising the active substance…
