Archive - January 2015

The EPO Board of Appeal decision T 1488/10 examines whether or not a feature in a figure of a prior art document can be measured to assert that a claim is not novel, if the figure appears to be to scale.   Previous case law on this matter generally indicates that schematic drawings, unlike construction […]

In the latest decision in the long-running dispute between Interflora and Marks and Spencer (‘M&S’), which concerns M&S’ use of the INTERFLORA trade mark in internet keyword advertising, the UK Court of Appeal (‘CoA’) has ordered that the case undergo re-trial in the High Court. In doing so, the CoA overturned Mr Justice Arnold’s (‘Arnold […]

In T1570/09, the Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) had to decide on a claim set that included both a Swiss-type claim and a purpose-limited product claim under Article 54(5) EPC 2000. The two second medical use claims were formulated as follows (emphasis added). 1. Use of at least one member selected […]

A decision has been issued in the cases of Volvo Trademark Holding AB v OHIM (Case T-524/11 and Case T-525/11). The car manufacturer Volvo has failed in its most recent attempt to prevent the registration of two figurative trade marks containing the sign LOVOL.   The European General Court has agreed with the OHIM Opposition […]

Mr Justice Arnold sitting in the Chancery Division of the High Court of England & Wales has recently handed down his decision in Cartier, Montblanc and Richemont v BSkyB, BT, TalkTalk, EE and Virgin (Open Rights Group intervening) in which he granted orders requiring Internet Service Providers to block access to websites which infringe trade […]

Austria became the first country to take the steps necessary to bring the European Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court (UPC) into force, by ratifying the legislation on 7 August 2013. This milestone in the Unitary Patent project is welcomed, and paves the way for other countries to start the ratification process. In order for […]

Last month saw the prototype of the eFiling and Case Management System for the new Unified Patent Court (UPC) go live for testing. This represents an important step closer to the implementation of the UPC. The development team, coordinated by a UK-based taskforce, have chosen an off-the-shelf product on which to base the system. The […]

In Les Laboratoires Servier & another (Servier) v Apotex Inc & others (Apotex) (see here) the Supreme Court ruled that patent infringement does not engage the public interest. It appears that the “illegality defence”, which relies on harmful effects on public well-being, cannot be used to avoid paying injunctive damages relating to potential patent infringement. […]