In our blog of last December, we reported that China has established a new IP Tribunal within the Supreme People’s Court (the “SPC”) as a national IP appellate court akin to the federal circuit in…
Last week the Board of Appeal issued a decision holding that Google’s patent application 04784004.6 was unallowable on the ground of lack of inventive step. Amongst other things, the decision…
The Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) in the UK has harshly criticized the European Patent Office for its handling of the issue of patentability of plants. Last month it published a…
The European Parliament has finally adopted the legislation introducing an SPC manufacturing waiver in its last plenary session before the upcoming European elections. The corresponding legislation…
A recently published Decision of 9 November 2018 from Barcelona Commercial Court number 5 sheds some light on the indicia that may or may not be sufficient for the purposes of ordering a preliminary…
The Higher Regional Court of Vienna confirmed the three-factor Bicalutamid/Schneidmesser Test, holding that a variant is equivalent to an invention for the purposes of infringement if the following…
A new trial was granted so a manufacturer accused of infringing the patent can challenge its validity by presenting additional obviousness theories that the district court should not have disallowed…
The Court concluded that the compound darunavir was not protected by a patent within the sense of Art. 3 of the SPC directive because, following the CJEU decision in Teva v Gilead, it is necessary…
The Higher Regional Court of Vienna confirmed that the "second medical use" of an already known substance, as required for patent protection, can be that the substance is used for a specific group of…
Only two thirds of EPO staff are proud to work at the European Patent Office. Four in ten say they face substantial obstacles to doing their job well. They have a very negative view of management…
