On 26 March 2024, the European Council adopted a new regulation on geographical indicators (“GI”) for agricultural products, wines, and spirits. Geographical indicators, sometimes also known as “protected designations of origin” confer rights that are not dissimilar to ordinary trade mark rights in the name of a place or region as it related to and insamuch … Read More
Blog
EU trade mark registrations no longer cover Jersey (and haven’t for quite some time)
For the uninitiated, Jersey (formally “The Bailiwick of Jersey”) is a self-governing, British Crown Dependency (located just off the coast of France) with its own parliament and laws. Trade mark holders have long been able to obtain Jersey-specific trade mark rights via extension (or “re-registration”) of an already existing UK trade mark right registered nationally … Read More
UK Court of Appeal finds for M&S against Aldi in Registered Design Battle of the Gin Bottles
Marks & Spencer’s registered designs to “snow globe” gin bottles were held to be infringed by Aldi’s look-a-like products in court of appeal Case No: CA-2023-000521. In the assessment of the registered designs, the court inspected a physical example of the M&S product. The court found that the designers of the M&S Product had had … Read More
UPC Decision
A recent decision of the Munich Local Division of the UPC in SES vs. Hanshow provides a first indication of how the UPC will interpret patent claim interpretation. Surprisingly, the Munich Local Division of the UPC considered both the original claims and the prosecution history in interpreting the granted claims. This approach is not supported by either EPO … Read More
Agreement to allow Protection in Georgia through a European Patent Application
Georgia will become the fifth validating state of the EPO, joining Morocco, Republic of Moldova, Tunisia and Cambodia. The validation agreement is expected to come into force on 1 January 2024. Accordingly, it is likely that applicants will be able to request protection in Georgia through European patent applications filed after 1 January 2024.
A Second Medical Use Application Requires Data Supporting the Medical Use
In recent Technical Board of Appeal (TBA) case T0258/21 the TBA reiterated settled case law that data is required in the application as filed to support a second medical use claim. Post filed evidence was submitted, purportedly to support the technical effect of the Application. The TBA found that the post filed data should not … Read More
Presumption of Entitlement to Claim Priority
The EPO Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBA) recently answered questions referred under consolidated cases G 1/22 and G 2/22, and has introduced a welcome relaxation in practice in the assessment of the validity of a priority claim. The EBA found the EPO to be competent to assess whether a party is entitled to claim priority, … Read More
Abolition of the 10 Day Rule
The “10-day” rule, which determines how the response deadlines to certain European Patent Office (EPO) communications are calculated, is to be abandoned from 1 November 2023. The 10 day rule was introduced to compensate for postal delays but is no longer considered necessary since most documents are issued electronically. Communications issued from 1 November 2023 … Read More
European Unitary Patent to come into effect from 1 June 2023
The Unified Patent Court (UPC) will become operational on 1 June 2023 heralding the start of the Unitary Patent Convention. A large number of opt outs from the jurisdiction of the UPC are being filed, and we would advise that any opt out is filed sooner rather than later to avoid any last minute rush.
Confidentiality of Medical Trials
The confidentiality of medical trials was examined in recent EPO board of appeal case T 0670/20. During phase IIa and IIb clinical trials conducted prior to the filing of patent application EP2140867, tablets of anti-blood clot agent edoxaban were distributed. Under European law, is not necessary to show that a disclosure has in fact taken … Read More