News

On Thursday 24 August, Lithuania ratified the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (UPCA), bringing the total number of ratifications to fourteen. As it stands, applicants will be able to protect their inventions in at least 16 countries (the existing 14 plus UK and Germany) with a single Unitary Patent (UP) when the system is […]

Inventors and applicants are often surprised to learn that the European Patent Convention (EPC) does not formally require a patent application to include experimental data. However, it has long been understood that any technical effect of an invention can only be relied upon to support an inventive step to the extent that the application as […]

Estonia has ratified the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (UPCA). Estonia’s ratification means that the geographical protection provided by the Unitary Patent (UP) upon implementation will cover to at least 15 countries. The complete list of countries to have ratified the UPCA can be found here but must also include the UK and Germany […]

The long running patent dispute between Actavis and Eli Lilly (Lilly) has now reached its zenith, with the UK Supreme Court decision issued 12th July (see here).  The Supreme Court allowed Lilly’s appeal and held that Actavis’ products directly infringe Eli Lilly’s patent in the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Spain.  This momentous decision has […]

The UK has set in motion the legislative process to remove the final legal impediment to ratification of the UPCA. The UKIPO has confirmed today that the Unified Patent Court (UPC) related Statutory Instrument (the “Order on Privileges and Immunities”) has been laid before Parliament, alongside equivalent legislation for Scotland being scheduled for discussion in […]

Victoria Plum Ltd v Victorian Plumbing Ltd [2016] EWHC 2911 was a trade mark case in which the issues of keyword advertising and honest concurrent use were intertwined.  The case highlights the fact that the ‘honesty’ of trade mark use can differ between the online and offline environments. The case also saw a successful counterclaim for […]