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Patent Prosecution Highway – MOTTAINAI: Ease of requirements

By Troels Peter Rørdam | Posted on September 16, 2011

During the summer of 2011 the first steps in the process of simplifying requesting accelerated prosecution of patent applications using the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) have been taken. Likewise, the number of PPH-agreements has increased, introducing new possibilities for accelerated prosecution, some of which are particularly relevant to our Scandinavian clients.  New Patent Prosecution Highway...

Tags: Australia, Canada, European Patent Attorney, Japan, Patent, pph mottainai, prosecution highway, Russia

Trademark Infringements in Social Networks

By AWA | Posted on August 18, 2011

Trademark Infringements in Social Networks Last year, in 2010, Facebook passed 500 million users. That’s more than the population of USA, Canada and Mexico put together. It is safe to say that Facebook and other social networks are very powerful and important tools of communication in many different aspects, affecting most things from your personal...

Tags: Infringement, Internet, Media, Social Networks, Trademark

Supplementary protection for combination products heading for setback at the CJ of the EU

By Niklas Mattsson | Posted on July 14, 2011

Supplementary protection for combination products heading for setback at the Court of Justice of the EU On 13 July 2011, the opinion of the Advocate General (AG) was released in the consolidated cases C-322/10 and C-422/10, “Medeva” and “Georgetown” respectively, concerning supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) for combination vaccines. In her opinion, the AG recommends the...

Tags: CJ, EU, Medication, SPC

Software inventions: The BGH confirms examination approach

By AWA | Posted on June 22, 2011

By its judgment in X ZR 121/09 (Webseitenanzeige), the German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) recently nullified one of Siemens AG’s German patents (English-language version) for lacking technical character. The judgment can be said to belong to the same lineage as Xa ZB 20/08 (Dynamische Dokumentengenerierung), which was reported in AWA IP Review 2/2010, and...

Tags: Attorney, BGH, EPC, Europe, Patent, Software

Counterfeit pharmaceuticals case settled without main hearing

By AWA | Posted on June 1, 2011

In April 2010 Eli Lilly and Company (“Lilly”), the manufacturer of the erectile dysfunction pharmaceutical Cialis, was informed that the Swedish customs had ceased a consignment of products marked and/or shaped in such a way that it was suspected to infringe the intellectual property rights of Lilly. The consignment was addressed to an individual, herein...

Tags: EEA, Infringement, Pharmaceuticals

A Favourite in Trademark Law: Repackaging – now gassy

By AWA | Posted on April 14, 2011

Danish courts are traditionally reluctant to ask preliminary questions on the interpretation of EU-legislation. Recently, the Supreme Court has done so, and quite comprehensively. During the 1990’s there were countless cases all over Europe regarding repackaging of products, especially medicines and printer toner cartridges, after parallel imports from one state to another. This case is a new...

Tags: Denmark, EU, Europe, Gas, Legislation, Packaging

The EPO starts cooperation with Google to provide machine translation of patents

By AWA | Posted on March 29, 2011

On 24 March, the EPO and Google signed an agreement to collaborate on machine translation of patents. Using Google Translate technology, the EPO will offer translations into 28 European languages, and into Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Russian. In order to be able to adapt the machine translation to the specific language used in patents, Google...

Tags: EPO, Google, Translation

Most comprehensive patent reform in almost 60 years approved by US senate

By Niklas Mattsson | Posted on March 11, 2011

Most comprehensive patent reform in almost 60 years approved by US senate Historic breakthrough as USA gets to grips with “first-to-invent”, the enormous backlog of patent applications and simplifying procedures for filing patents in the USA. On Tuesday 8 March 2011, the US Senate voted to approve the nation’s most comprehensive patent reform since 1952,...

Tags: Patent, Reform, USA

A brighter future for the EU patent

By Anders Heebøll-Nielsen | Posted on December 13, 2010

A brighter future for the EU patent 11 EU member states have decided to move towards an EU patent under an enhanced cooperation aiming to reduce costs of patenting in the EU. Progress towards implementation of the long desired EU patent has until now been hindered by disagreements between the EU member states regarding translation...

Tags: EPO, EU, Patent

Supplementary protection certificates for plant protection products

By AWA | Posted on November 15, 2010

11 November 2010 the Court of Justice of the European Union issued a preliminary ruling in the case C-229/09 that Supplementary protection certificates for plant protection products may validly be obtained based on provisional marketing authorisations In this recent decision by the Court of Justice (CJ) it was ruled that a supplementary protection certificate (SPC)...

Tags: CJ, EU, SPC

Recent contributors

Alexandre Theodorou, Partner and European Patent Attorney, Brussels, Belgium

Alexandre Theodorou

Partner, European Patent Attorney

Laura Stravinskaite, Senior Associate and Attorney at Law, Copenhagen K, Denmark

Laura Stravinskaite

Senior Associate, Attorney at Law

Ai-Leen Lim, Partner and Attorney at Law, Hong Kong SAR

Ai-Leen Lim

Partner, Attorney at Law, Group Vice President

Ashley Zhao, Partner and Attorney at Law, Beijing, China

Ashley Zhao

Partner, Attorney at Law, Business Area Manager

Troels Peter Rørdam, Senior Counsel and European Patent Attorney, Copenhagen K, Denmark

Troels Peter Rørdam

Senior Counsel, European Patent Attorney