31st Jul 2015
Recent decisions of the Supreme Court in Teva v Kyowa Hakko Kirin and Teva v Tori Limited have changed the interpretation of product-by-process claims applied in Japan, bringing that interpretation more in line with the related practice in Europe. Changes to Japanese patent law are also planned under a new bill recently approved by the […]
31st Jul 2015
It has now been over two months since the UK general election concluded with a surprise victory for the Conservative party. The dust has now settled and the media has moved on. While few in the media considered the effects of this historic election result on intellectual property, the Conservative victory does have some interesting […]
30th Jul 2015
A new website has recently launched to assist innovators in the renewable energy field. Earlier this month, the European Patent Office (EPO) collaborated in the launch of the International Standards and Patents in Renewable Energy (INSPIRE) website with the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). It is hoped that by […]
21st Jul 2015
We are expecting the Unitary Patent to become an available option in the next few years, allowing applicants to obtain a single Unitary Patent covering all countries of the European Patent Convention who have signed up fully to the Unitary Patent system. One of the issues that may help dictate whether patent owners decide to […]
20th Jul 2015
Hot off the press, the 29 June decision of Judge Richard Hacon in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC) The Sofa Workshop Ltd v Sofaworks Ltd [2015] EWHC 1773, (IPEC), contains some interesting conclusions both from the point of view of the European Community at large and in particular the UK. The action was brought […]
15th Jul 2015
It was recently announced that the European Patent Office (EPO) has extended its global dossier service. The service originally launched in June 2014 and provided a single resource for accessing patents from both the EPO and the Chinese Patent Office (SIPO). An applicant often files multiple applications directed to the same inventive concept in multiple […]