High Court: Patents Court judgments, 2007

In patent litigation, costs are governed by the general principles in Civil Procedure Rules 1998, including the court’s discretion to make issue-based orders.…

Patent essentiality is determined by construing the claims and the relevant technical standard in their proper context. A claim is essential only where…

For reinstatement under Patents Act 1977, the relevant failure is the failure whose direct consequence was refusal or deemed refusal of the application. A…

An appeal under the statutory scheme for Comptroller’s opinions is a substantive appeal which the Patents Court should hear, even though the opinion and review…

A patent claim is invalid for added matter where the amended subject matter is not clearly and unambiguously disclosed in the application as filed. The…

Patent claims must be construed in their context, beginning with the words chosen by the patentee. A technically arbitrary limitation may receive a broader…

A product is obtained directly by means of a patented process only where it is the immediate product of that process, or retains the identity of an…

In patent proceedings, failure to comply perfectly with the pleading requirements for invalidity does not automatically prevent disclosure. The court must…

A European patent does not take effect for a designated state merely because the European Patent Bulletin mistakenly mentions that state. Where its designation…

For the exception in Article 7 of the Council Regulation (EC) No. 6/2002, the relevant sector is the sector consisting of, or including, the sector of the…

A patent claim defined by an experimental powder X-ray diffraction pattern must be construed uniformly, allowing for the intrinsic experimental error in the…

In parallel proceedings concerning a European patent, the court has a presumption, although not a strong one, in favour of a stay of national proceedings…

In a patent amendment application, added matter under section 76(3)(a) of the Patents Act 1977 is assessed by comparing the proposed amendment with the…

Patentability of computer-implemented gaming inventions is determined by identifying the actual contribution made to the prior art and asking whether that…

A Swiss-form second medical use claim must involve a new and inventive therapeutic application. Novelty cannot reside merely in a different dosage regimen for…

A patent monopoly must correspond to the disclosed technical contribution. Where obtaining and testing an individual enantiomer is an obvious goal, invention…

Use of a composite sign incorporating a famous trade mark may be infringement even where the additional element changes the sign’s semantic meaning. Identity…

Added matter is assessed by comparing the application as filed with the patent as granted through the eyes of the skilled addressee. Subject matter is added…

A stay on forum non conveniens grounds requires an available alternative forum with competent jurisdiction that is clearly or distinctly more appropriate for…

Patent claims must be assessed according to their substance and scope. The court applied the four-stage approach in Aerotel/Macrossan —construction…

Patent claims must be construed objectively and purposively in the context of the specification. Functional language such as an amount sufficient to prevent…

Restoration of a UK patent priority date requires an unintentional failure to file the relevant application within the statutory period. An intention to file a…

Patent infringement pleadings must identify the material facts and specific acts relied on. A claimant must give an example of each type of infringement…

A patentee may commence infringement proceedings relying on claims proposed in an application to amend, even where it accepts that relevant claims as granted…