High Court: Patents Court judgments, 2011

For the purposes of Patents Act 1977, section 63(2), an allegation that patent claims were drafted without good faith or reasonable skill and knowledge…

In assessing obviousness, the court must decide the single statutory question whether the invention was obvious. “Obvious to try” is only one factor and…

An invention is insufficient where the skilled person cannot perform it across the claimed scope without undue burden or inventive skill. Ordinary trial and…

The Patents Court’s discretion to stay domestic validity proceedings pending parallel EPO proceedings is broad and must achieve justice on all relevant…

Samples relating to experiments deployed in patent proceedings may be ordered where their production is proportionate and enables the opposing party to…

On an appeal concerning inventive step, the court should review the hearing officer’s decision rather than rehear the issue. The structured approach in Pozzoli…

A third party which retransmits a free-to-air broadcast may communicate the broadcast and works comprised in it to the public even where each subscriber could…

For the computer-program exclusion, the court must identify the contribution made by the claimed invention as a whole. The question is what task the programmed…

Under the amended Patents Act 1977, the matters in section 63(2) are factors to be taken into account when awarding relief for infringement of a partially…

Applications for expedition of patent proceedings require consideration of four factors: whether there is good reason for expedition, whether expedition would…

The mental-act exclusion in section 1(2)(c) of the Patents Act 1977 has a narrow scope. It prevents claims from being performed by purely mental means. It does…

In assessing obviousness, the court must consider the invention as a whole and avoid hindsight. The fact that a step is included in a research programme, or…

Applications for expedition of patent proceedings require a structured assessment of four matters: whether there is good reason for expedition, its effect on…

Summary judgment should be granted only where the evidence establishes that the opposing party has no realistic prospect of success. The court must avoid a…

Patent claims are construed purposively, but the court must respect the language actually chosen and must not add or disregard a deliberate limitation. A…

Section 2(2)(b) of the European Communities Act 1972 is a sui generis power. It permits secondary legislation closely and naturally related to implementing a…

A patent claim must be construed purposively by asking what the skilled person would understand the patentee to mean in the context of the specification and…

Patent claims must be construed purposively, by asking what the skilled person would understand the language to mean in the context of the specification. A…

Summary judgment in a patent case is exceptional. The court must decide whether the opposing case has a realistic, rather than fanciful, prospect of success…

A patent claim must be construed purposively in context, while giving effect to deliberate limitations in its language. For obviousness, the question is…

In deciding whether to continue an interim injunction, the court must assess the likely market effect of the restrained conduct over the relevant period and…

Patent claims must be construed purposively in their technical and factual context. Where the specification, common general knowledge and industry practice…

A patent claim concerning access control on a mobile telecommunications random access channel is construed purposively in its technical context. A claim…

Interest on a monetary award is assessed on a broad-brush basis. The court need not determine the recipient’s precise loss or the rate at which that particular…

An application to adjourn a trial should be determined by assessing the parties’ likely prejudice in the circumstances existing when the application is heard.…

A patent claim is assessed according to the language used, construed purposively in its technical context. A generic or silent disclosure does not anticipate a…

The ex turpi causa rule applies to a claim under a cross-undertaking in damages where the claimant’s unlawful conduct is sufficiently serious and the claimed…

For added matter, a patent may make express what was implicit in the application as filed, but may not introduce an obvious conclusion which the skilled reader…

Fresh evidence admitted on appeal must be confined to the issues and documents identified in the remission order. A pleading concerning prior publication must…

Patent claims must be construed purposively by asking what the skilled reader would understand the language to mean. The court must not import limitations from…

On an application to amend pleadings, permission should be granted where the proposed case is sufficiently clear and has a real prospect of success, even…

A patent claim lacks inventive step where the claimed difference from the prior art is one of several technically obvious alternatives. An absence of motive is…

The court must restrict expert evidence to that which is reasonably required to resolve the proceedings. Where a patent concerns technology spanning distinct…

Experimental evidence in patent proceedings includes technical imaging where its production requires sample preparation and the exercise of judgment. A party…

A patent attorney litigator’s right to conduct litigation depends on whether the proceedings fall within the defined scope of Intellectual Property Litigation.…

An application to try a preliminary issue should be assessed by reference to the overall justice and efficiency of the proposed procedure. Relevant…