PATENTS, TRADE MARKS AND DESIGNS
WE HELP INDIVIDUALS AND BUSINESSES OF ALL shapes and SIZES
Schlich is a unique team of European Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys based in the South of England. Since 2004, we’ve helped our clients acquire, and defend, their IP assets, helping them to build and grow successful businesses based on their IP assets.
We draft and file patent applications, get them granted and enforce them. We also prepare and file trade mark applications and prosecute them to registration.
To enforce our clients’ rights, we also represent them in court and other inter partes proceedings (and, where necessary, attack and remove competitors’ rights).
Recent Insights
Read the latest news and briefings from the team at Schlich about real cases involving patents, trade marks and designs.
A New European Court to Administer an EU Patent
There has long been a desire for patent rights to be pan-European. Now the Unitary Patent System has been built and is scheduled to begin operation at the end of 2022 or the beginning of 2023. Such a new International system requires a new judicial organisation to govern it. This is the Unified Patent Court (UPC). European patents will be governed by the UPC by default. Therefore if a patentee wants to deviate from this, and ensure their patents are governed by national law, then action must be taken soon.
Unitary patents are coming – are they right for you?
With the Unitary Patent System due to start in the near future, it is important for applicants of European patent applications to consider whether to validate their European patent classically or with unitary effect across the Member States thereof. Here we provide a summary of the main advantages and disadvantages of unitary patents to help you decide whether unitary patents are right for you.
UKIPO cannot raise ex officio bad faith objections
Global Trade Mark Services Ltd (GTS) filed two trade mark applications in early 2021, for the marks below in relation to ‘clothing, footwear, headgear’ in class 25.
UK Court Has Jurisdiction to Grant Interim Injunction Before Formal Granted Patent
The UK Courts have decided that they have jurisdiction to grant an interim junction, restraining an infringer, before a European Patent has granted, in the specific circumstances where the Appeal Board of the EPO had held that a patent should be granted, but the formal procedure for grant had not yet been completed.
Latest developments in the EPO’s description amendment saga
A second Board of Appeal has decided there is no legal basis in the EPC for the requirement for the description of a European patent application to be amended to bring this into conformity with the allowed claims. This has breathed new life into the conclusions in T 1989/18, which previously seemed to have been suppressed by several other recent Board of Appeal decisions.
CJEU set to decide who is liable when advertising infringing products online
The CJEU is set to consider whether the operator of an online marketplace may be held liable for infringement when a third party advertises goods bearing a trade mark without the authorisation of the mark’s owner on its marketplace. In particular, the CJEU will decide the circumstances under which the operator can be held liable, and the circumstances under which liability rests with the third party only.
EPO Board of Appeal Confirms Requirement for Description Amendments
In our previous article, we reported an EPO Technical Board of Appeal decision, T 1989/18, that found there to be no legal basis for the long-established practice of requiring applicants to amend the description of their European patent applications prior to grant so that they conform with the allowed claims of the application. However, in this decision (T 1024/18), a different Board of Appeal has effectively overturned the earlier decision, concluding that amending the description is necessary to meet the support requirement of Art. 84 EPC.
New SPC Referral to CJEU
There has been a new referral to the CJEU from the Supreme Court of Ireland on the interpretation of Articles 3(a) and 3(c) of the European SPC Regulation in relation to combination products.
EXCELLENCE IN PATENT AND TRADE MARK LAW
The Schlich Team
Our clients expect and receive a responsive, friendly, high quality and great value service thanks to our experienced professionals. Our UK and European Patent Attorneys and Chartered Trade Mark Attorneys have a broad range of scientific and technical degrees and Ph.Ds from top UK Universities, and have decades of experience advising at cutting edge of legal and commercial issues and technologies.
We build on our deep experience of prosecution and inter partes proceedings to give the best strategic and practical advice, and to secure the best patent and trade mark protection for our clients’ innovations. Our team does this efficiently, and in a friendly and clear manner, supported by a wider team of highly skilled and experienced legal support staff.
Latest Firm News
Improving Power Transmission Using Capacitance
Enertechnos designs highly efficient power transmission cables using its revolutionary Capacitive Transfer System. An important feature of these cables is that capacitance is distributed along their lengths, which minimises power loss.
Juliette Boynton is Schlich’s Newest Associate
We would like to congratulate Juliette Boynton in becoming our newest Associate here at Schlich! With this well-deserved promotion, Juliette joins our existing Associates: Andrew Clements and Alex Bajjon.
Schlich launches a new website!
At the start of January we launched our new website and, if we do say so ourselves, it has been a great success!
