Introduction The Court costs for the Unified Patent Court seem significantly higher than those of the UK High Court, with the cost for actions for infringement at €11,000 and revocation actions (including counterclaims) at €20,000. In addition to this, for claims with...
Background Applicants wishing to obtain patent protection in more than one country have various options for doing so. One strategy is to file a first application at, say, the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) or the European Patent Office (EPO), and then file a...
Questions When will the Unitary Patent System take effect? This is currently unknown. The system will come into force once the UPC Agreement has been ratified by 13 member states, which must include the UK, Germany and France. At present the “best guess” is mid-2016....
Previously, most contracting states of the European Patent Convention (EPC) require the filing of a translation of the specification in order for a granted European patent to come into force in that state. This validation process and, in particular, the requirement...
Background Following C-34/10, any non-fertilised human ovum for which division and further development are stimulated by parthenogenesis was to be considered a “human embryo”. Such a non-fertilised and stimulated human ovum is called a parthenote. The CJEU’s ruling in...
The scope for patenting stem cell-based inventions in Europe was dealt a blow by the judgement of the CJEU in Brüstle vs Greenpeace (C 34/10)1. The practical result of this judgement was that the earliest date from which the EPO would acknowledge that morally...
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