High Court: Patents Court judgments, 2004

Contractual royalty-sharing provisions are construed objectively, by reference to the language used in its commercial and factual context. A pedantic or…

The court referred questions concerning the meaning of Council Regulation 1768/92/EEC rather than deciding whether the proposed supplementary protection…

A properly constituted patent revocation action should generally proceed to trial where it is not subject to arbitration and is not abusive. The English court…

In complex patent proceedings, the court may control disclosure by requiring each party to identify a limited number of products that exemplify its…

A party seeking to widen a confidentiality club must show that each proposed additional person would make a significant contribution to the fair conduct of the…

Inventorship under the Patents Act 1977 depends on who devised the inventive concept, not everyone who contributed to the patent specification or enabled its…

Costs should reflect the issues on which each party succeeded, rather than mechanically applying the general rule that the unsuccessful party pays. Where a…

On an appeal against the exercise of a discretion, the appellant bears the burden of showing that the decision was erroneous. That burden is particularly heavy…

Parties who choose an English court to determine infringement under a multinational patent licence will generally be held to that choice. Parallel foreign…

Interlocutory relief is a balancing of the potential injustices which may result from granting or withholding an injunction. Where infringement is strongly…

Norwich Pharmacal-type disclosure is discretionary and may be deferred where an interlocutory injunction adequately protects the claimant’s market, there is no…

Under German patent law, infringement begins with the semantic meaning of the claims, construed in context. A variant outside that meaning is protected only if…

Evidence obtained compulsorily in civil proceedings is subject to an implied restriction against collateral use unless the court permits it or the witness…

Obviousness is assessed objectively by reference to the skilled person, the common general knowledge and each individual item of prior art. Separate documents…

“Presentation of information” in section 1(2)(d) of the Patents Act 1977 includes the provision or conveying of information, not merely the manner in which…

The court may strike out a prima facie valid statutory cause of action where its pursuit is an abuse of process. The power extends to claims created by…