High Court: Patents Court judgments, 2012

Patent claims are construed purposively in context, but deliberate claim limitations must be given effect. Terms such as “transceiver”, “message” and “status”…

Article 16 of the Regulation (EC) 469/2009 gives the court a discretion to revoke a paediatric extension. An extension is not necessarily invalid because an…

Consent to service is construed objectively in its factual and procedural context. A consent covering proceedings by a corporate group may extend to the…

Part 36 offers remain protected by the without prejudice save as to costs rule unless privilege is waived. A party cannot disclose selected terms of an offer…

Patent claims are construed purposively in their technical and descriptive context. A product claim directed to a coating concerns the resulting physical…

The duration of a supplementary protection certificate depends on the first authorisation to place the product on the market in the relevant territory. The…

For the purposes of Article 3(a) of Regulation 469/2009/EC, a product must embody the inventive advance or technical contribution of the basic patent. It is…

A holder of a basic patent may, in principle, apply for a supplementary protection certificate relying on a marketing authorisation granted to an unconnected…

Where a product description includes confidential material unavailable to the opposing party, compliance with a disclosure order may be assessed by reference…

A patent claim must be construed purposively, but the court remains concerned with the meaning of the language used. A claim to a passenger seating system for…

Article 110(1) of the Community Designs Regulation operates as an exception to registered design rights. The defendant bears the burden of proving that the…

The court has jurisdiction under the Senior Courts Act 1981, section 37(1), to grant injunctions concerning infringement assertions and to order publication of…

In a European patent product claim, functional wording such as “constructed to receive” ordinarily describes capability, not the designer’s intention. The…

In patent disputes, a claim may have a fuzzy boundary without being ambiguous or insufficient. Claims must be construed purposively, using the specification…

Community registered design infringement is assessed by the informed user’s overall impression. The court should identify the informed user and existing design…

The judgment determines infringement and validity of four technology patents. Patent claims must be construed through the eyes of the skilled person, read in…

A first-instance court may refer a question to the European Court of Justice only where a ruling is necessary to enable judgment in the pending case. The court…

Post-grant amendment is allowable where the amended claim is clearly and unambiguously disclosed, expressly or implicitly, in the application as filed. The…

A costs capping order under CPR 44.18 requires all statutory conditions to be satisfied. The court must assess whether there is a substantial risk of…

For patent validity, added matter exists where an amendment presents the skilled person with technical teaching that is not directly and unambiguously…

Rule 107(3) of the Patents Rules 2007 permits extension of a specified period only where an irregularity of procedure is attributable, wholly or partly, to an…

In a patent damages inquiry, the inquiry is ordinarily confined by the originating order and the causes of action established at trial. A claimant cannot use…

Exclusive jurisdiction under the Protocol on Recognition is exclusive of courts in non-Contracting States as well as other Contracting States. Where an…

For infringement, a claim to an isolated VEGF receptor includes receptor fragments and variants of any size, provided they retain the essential ability to bind…

A patent lacks an inventive step where the skilled team would have been motivated to pursue the claimed formulation, would regard the relevant technical route…

A quia timet patent claim requires an averred and provable threat and intention to infringe. The inference depends on all the circumstances; no universal…

In construing a patent claim, the court determines what the skilled person would understand the patentee to mean from the claim language read in context. A…

For supplementary protection certificates, Article 3(a) precludes protection for active ingredients that are not identified in the claims of the basic patent.…

For a process claim, an SPC cannot be granted under Article 3(a) of the European Parliament and Council Regulation 469/2009/EC for a product merely because it…