Insights

Can a product be simultaneously available and unavailable to the public? In T 0438/19 , the Board grappled with questions regarding the criteria that must be met for a product to form part of the state of the art in accordance with Article 54(2) EPC. Pointing to divergent approaches in how the leading decision in this...

On 27 April 2023 the European Commission published proposals concerning supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) for medicinal products and plant protection products. SPC protection is currently only available at national level. The proposals would introduce the option of obtaining a unitary SPC, as well as a new centralised procedure for obtaining a bundle of national SPCs. In addition, the...

On the 1 June 2023, the Unified Patent Court (UPC) opened its doors for business and some of the first customers were hungry for the revocation of life sciences patents. These first UPC revocation actions highlight some of the key differences between UPC revocation actions and European Patent Office (EPO) opposition proceedings. EP3666797 (Amgen, Inc)...

After years in the planning, the Unified Patent Court (UPC) opened its doors for business on 1 June 2023, also bringing an end to the sunrise period for opting out European patents and applications from the jurisdiction of the UPC. Now that a week has passed, we can draw breath and reflect on our experiences...

Jo Pelly, Partner, wrote recently about the Unified Patent Court’s division of work between its Central Divisions in the article: UPC Central Divisions How will the split work between Paris and Munich? This brought some clarity following the confusion caused by the UK leaving the EU which necessitated a redistribution of the cases originally earmarked...