Intellectual Property Expert Group
Intellectual Property Expert Group
On 13 July 2006, the long awaited decisions of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) were given in the cases of GAT v LuK and Roche v Primus. To the disappointment of some, the ECJ appears to have prohibited cross-border…
In May 2006, a jury in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts in Boston issued an initial decision in the case of Ariad Pharmaceuticals et al v. Eli Lilly and Company. The federal jury’s verdict is that U.S. Patent No.…
On April 19 and 20 Seoul, Korea hosted the International Conference on Customs Protection and Enforcement of IP. As the title suggests the main theme was the increasing number of counterfeited goods in the world market and the efforts of…
Last Friday, May 5, 2006, the ECJ gave its judgement in Massachusetts Institute of Technology (C-431/04) concerning SPC (supplementary protection certificates) and the meaning of “combination of active ingredients” in article 1(b) of EU Regulation 1768 The ECJ did not…
When Rembrandt’s painting “Portrait of a Lady” was auctioned in London for U$28.7 million, many believed it was actually the auction fever that made prices reach incredible levels, driven up by eager art buyers and sellers looking for scarce supply…
Corporate America celebrated when the international agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) went into effect Jan. 1, 1995. Many companies believed TRIPS would go a long way toward protecting their IP rights overseas. Patent owners were especially…
French Parliament debates a new digital copyright law that could have major implications for the online music distribution industry, most notably the most innovative company in this industry, Apple. Not only is the new law confusing, it signals a dangerous…
On April 5, Chicago-based patent consulting firm Ocean Tomo LLC plans to hold a semi-annual patent auction at the Ritz Cartlon in San Francisco. The firm will offer for sale approx 400 patents pertaining to semiconductors, RFID, wireless communications, automotive…
On 13 December 2005, Greece became the fifteenth Contracting State of the European Patent Convention to deposit its instrument of ratification or accession for EPC 2000. Fifteen was the magic number required to start the clock ticking and EPC 2000…
Research in Motion UK Ltd v Inpro Licensing SARL Patents Court, Febr. 2, 2006. An interesting case on anticipation and enablement, patentable subject matter and some comments on when to use the “streamlined procedure” before the Patents Court in the…
On Feb. 6 the UK Patent Office launched a consultation on the inventive step requirement in UK patent law. Responses from interested innovators, scientists, engineers, businesses and legal professionals are requested by 31 May 2006. What is the purpose of…
One of Philips marketing success stories is the Philishave, the shaver with the well known three heads. Philips filed a trademark for this shape, consisting of the overall shape of an inverted equilateral triangle with three heads sitting within a…
On 18 November 2005 the English High Court (Christopher Floyd QC sitting as a Deputy Judge of the Patents Court) handed down its judgment in the case of Schering Plough v Norbrook Laboratories. The Court’s interpretation of the recent decision…
Recently it was announced that EU Commissioner McGreevy would like to make “one more, last (emphasis on “last”!) attempt to create a low-cost EU Community Patent”. See Financial Times, January 16 It also seems that the Commission has become less…
Patent speak is constantly enriched. By now we know what “Patent Trolls” or Patent Vultures are, don’t we? In fairytales of Hans Christian Andersen these ugly creatures are portrayed as friendly or mischievous dwarfs or as giants, that live in…
European and US IP practitioners have eagerly awaited the Advocate General’s opinion in the Roche-Primus case. Today the AG, Philippe Léger, published his opinion in this important case (not yet available in English). The case was referred by the Netherlands…
Ask the Judge in The Hague. Heineken sued Philips over a contraption called “the beer tender”. Basically it is a small tap one can use to draft a nice glass of beer from an even smaller vat. So nothing special…
An interesting development in the US courts. Audio MPEG (Sisvel’s US affiliate) sued Creative Labs earlier this year, over the same patents we’ve been threatened with. Last week, the District Court found that Audio MPEG lacked standing by itself to…
More mp3 Apart from companies that decided, for different reasons, to take a license from Sisvel (some of them not because they really believed they needed one, but to avoid further harassment by Sisvel) other big names in the mp3…
You want to tap into the vast market for mp3, right? Intoxicated by the success of Apple’s iTunes and the irresistible iPod, your company either produces or sells mp3 decoding audio equipment. Then be aware! You must have encountered Sisvel…