In The News

Compulsory Licensing under a Unitary Patent

Area: Patents

Should the European Unitary Patent and the Unified Patent Court get off the ground in its present form, the new court will have jurisdiction over unitary patents (and "traditional" patents granted under the EPC that are not opted-out) for actions in relation to patent infringemen...

EPO guidelines on software claims

Area: Patents

The EPO Guidelines are the main resource used by EPO examiners for guidance in the examination process. A new section (F-IV, 3.9) is being added in November to the chapter on formal requirements of claims, setting out explicit examples of acceptable kinds of claims directed to ...

Fighting unfair competition in the UK and Germany: an Anglo-German perspective

Area: Patents, Trade Mark Attorneys, Lawyers & Brand Protection Advisors, Design Protection Attorneys and Legal Advisors, Intellectual Property Litigation & Dispute Resolution, IP Strategy

Are you a brand owner with registered trademark rights? Or do you have a registered design or patent right for your top-selling product? So far so good, that registration certificate is likely to be enough on its own to clear the first hurdle against infringers, that is, proving ...

Innovation capture - identifying and protecting IP

Area: Patents, Trade Mark Attorneys, Lawyers & Brand Protection Advisors, Design Protection Attorneys and Legal Advisors, Intellectual Property Litigation & Dispute Resolution, IP Strategy

Intellectual Property (IP) is a valuable asset, and for high-tech companies, much for that value lies in registrable rights, such as patents and designs. Yet the right to register those rights can easily be lost if the rights owner fails to identify and protect its innovation in ...

Patentability Searching - pros and cons

Area: Patents

Partner James Cross examines the pros and cons of patentability searching from the applicant's perspective.

Review of Myriad and Prometheus Cases

Following the recent Myriad and Prometheus decisions of the US court, the law relating to the patentability of isolated genes has changed in the US such that it is different to the corresponding law in Europe. The purpose of this note is to explain this difference and provide gui...

Roundtable - Patent disputes

Area: Patents, Intellectual Property Litigation & Dispute Resolution

Patent disputes are often based on fundamental disagreements between the parties on the scope and validity of the patent which makes these cases more difficult to settle.