Case Law

The Supreme Court held that the relevant date of a patent's enforceability, in case a Spanish translation is required for such enforceability, is the date of announcement of the grant of the patent…

In the assessment of inventive step, the question whether the prior art discloses a pointer for the skilled person to use the measures described therein, and to apply these to a known substance,…

The Federal Court of Justice held that data can be a product directly obtained by a patented process and can therefore be protected. An important issue was whether patent rights were exhausted, if…

The Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBA) revoked a decision by the Technical Board of Appeal because it failed to decide on a request to admit an expert report (rule 104b EPC2000). The petition for review…

The Technical Board of Appeal ruled that a claim of an opposed patent was anticipated by the publication of a divisional of that same patent. Because the claim contained an intermediate…

An invention entailing a talking doll with the ability to send e-mails was held to be unpatentable. The Board of Appeal rejected applicant's argument that the invention was in the technical field of…

The District Court held a patent entitled "Special Alcoholic Drink" invalid, due to lack of novelty and clarity as a non-enabling disclosure. Furthermore, the Court dismissed the invalidity action…

The act of including a generic product into the official Austrian pharmaceutical product index before expiry of the relevant patent/SPC, is considered an act of "putting into circulation" and…

A patent can be re-assigned to the legitimate rights holder based on a claim of entitlement under Article 118 Italian IP Code, even when the patented subject matter differs from the invention made by…