Related insights: Patents
Countdown to 1 June: unitary patents and unified patent court decisions loom for European patent owners
30 Mar 2023
Patent owners soon will be entering a brave new world when establishing and enforcing European patents. Talks of a single, unitary European patent began back in 1962. An attempt to create one in the late 1980s failed, but finally, the Unitary Patent System and accompanying Unified Patent Court will happen this year, after lengthy delays and court challenges.
The new patent system will give patent holders a range of additional options to consider, but key decisions need to be made now, before the Unitary Patent System takes effect on 1 June 2023.
The new patent system will give patent holders a range of additional options to consider, but key decisions need to be made now, before the Unitary Patent System takes effect on 1 June 2023.
European patent holders should address opt-out question before Unified Patent Court begins operations
29 Nov 2022
Should I stay or should I go? This is the question current owners of European patents and applicants for pending applications are asking as the European Patent with Unitary Effect (Unitary Patent) and Unified Patent Court (UPC) are scheduled to launch on 1 April 2023. Once in effect, a Unitary Patent will be enforceable in all Member States, and the UPC will have jurisdiction over all disputes related to a Unitary Patent. Likewise, any remedy awarded by the UPC (including injunctions and/or revocations), will be effective in all Member States.
Brexit and patents
02 Jul 2021
As the European patent regime is not an instrument of the European Union ("EU"), it has remained largely unaffected by Brexit. The European Patent Convention 2000 and its various protocols are not part of the accumulated body of EU law. The current membership of the European Patent Office numbers 38 countries, which is a far greater number than the current 27 member states of the EU. The membership of the United Kingdom ("UK") to the Patent Cooperation Treaty also remains unaffected.
Brexit and designs
18 May 2021
Since 1 January 2021, the scope of protection afforded by registered Community designs ("RCDs") has not extended to the United Kingdom ("UK"). However, each owner of a RCD that was registered and published before or on 31 December 2020 has been granted a comparable registered and enforceable IP right in the UK, known as the 're-registered design' – hereafter "RRD" – which came into force automatically and free of charge on 1 January 2021.
Lack of inventive step: reading v appreciating
18 Aug 2020
Patents bestow upon their owners powerful monopolistic rights, entitling them to control the use of their inventions for a finite period. Although monopolies are generally regarded as being contrary to the public interest, an exception is made in the case of patents because there is perceived to be a 'bargain' whereby the grant of exclusivity is assumed to encourage the disclosure by patentees of their inventions, thereby adding to the pool of human knowledge such that the inventions will then become available for use by all at the expiry of the patent term (usually 20 years)[1].
UK Supreme Court gives a strict interpretation on the rules of sufficiency
13 Jul 2020
The UK's Supreme Court ("UKSC") has handed down its eagerly awaited judgment in the dispute between Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc ("Regeneron") and Kymab Limited ("Kymab"). The invention by Regeneron related to the creation of a type of transgenic mouse (the "VelocImmune") that is more effective in its receipt of human antibody genes, for the production of human antibodies. As such, this genetically modified mouse has been regarded as a major breakthrough in the field of bio pharmaceuticals. Nevertheless, despite such an advancement, the UKSC has held that the patents upon which Regeneron based its innovative platform are invalid for lack of sufficiency because the claims, as construed, would include a range of modified mice, some of which it would not have been possible to produce as at the priority date of February 2001.
Procedural errors by patent administrator cause SPC loss to Genentech
03 Jul 2020
In a recent patent case, the grant of a supplementary protection certificate ("SPC") – which gives up to five years' extra patent protection – was revoked by the UK High Court as a consequence of annuity fees being underpaid by a company's agent.
Unified Patent Court ratification declared unconstitutional by German court
03 Apr 2020
The German Federal Constitutional Court has recently made a finding that Germany's ratification of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court is unconstitutional.
Shanks v Unilever: a pragmatic result following a long drawn out saga
27 Jan 2020
Inventions made by employees and protected under the Patents Act 1977 (the "1977 Act") which have exceptional success on the market may entitle that employee to a fair share of the benefit received by their employer.
Can artificial intelligence be an inventor?
02 Oct 2019
Malcolm Dowden, Legal Director of WBD examines the far-reaching implications for patent law and beyond.
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