29th Feb 2016
A recent Supreme Court decision in Japan (JPO v Genentech, Supreme Court, No. 2014 (Gyo hi) No.356) 1 confirms that the Japanese Patent Office (JPO) was incorrect in the way it applied the law relating to patent term extensions (PTE), and that the ‘identity’ of the pharmaceutical products which are the subject of earlier and […]
29th Feb 2016
Owners of international trade mark registrations with an EU designation who have relied on a Nice Class heading to define the scope of protection should take action urgently. A new European Union Trade Mark Regulation comes into force on 23 March 2016. Article 28 of that Regulation provides a one-time-only opportunity (until 24 September 2016) […]
26th Feb 2016
When the Unified Patent Court comes into being, the Court will have exclusive jurisdiction for infringement and validity matters for all Unitary Patents. The default position is that the Court will also have jurisdiction for any national validations of conventional European patents, including those that have already been granted. However, owners of European patents and […]
22nd Feb 2016
The UK Government has set the date for the referendum on whether the UK should remain part of the European Union. This means that we could wake up on 24 June 2016 and find that a majority of the UK population has voted to leave the European Union, and therefore the process of withdrawing from […]
11th Feb 2016
When granted, your patent will prevent your competitors from benefiting from your invention. So, having done your best to describe your technology to your patent attorney, why do you find him or her working and re-working your description and obscuring it with odd words inappropriately conjoined into incomprehensible numbered sentences? Why can’t a patent attorney […]
2nd Feb 2016
The Unified Patent Court (UPC) Agreement has taken another step towards implementation with ratification by Finland – the ninth ratification by a participating country. Meanwhile, ratification by the UK is one step closer. On 19 January 2016, Finland deposited its instrument of ratification of the UPC Agreement to the General Secretariat of the Council in […]