High Court: Patents Court judgments, 2019

Failure to satisfy the conditions identified by the CJEU for the safe harbour available to an SEP proprietor does not automatically establish an abuse of a…

For patent obviousness, the skilled person is identified by reference to the invention defined by the claims and those with a practical interest in its subject…

Where defendants seek to withdraw from substantial patent proceedings, the application should ordinarily be determined as swiftly as fairness and proper…

Patent infringement by equivalents requires two stages: normal, purposive interpretation of the claim, followed, where necessary, by consideration of whether…

Novelty is assessed objectively. A prior disclosure anticipates a patent claim if performing what it discloses would necessarily result in infringement, even…

Under the Disclosure Pilot Rules, disclosure must be directed to a pleaded key issue that requires contemporaneous documents for a fair resolution. Material…

For committal for contempt, the applicant must prove to the criminal standard that the defendant had notice of a sufficiently clear order, deliberately acted…

In deciding whether to stay UK patent proceedings pending EPO opposition proceedings, the court must apply the IPCom guidance as a broad, fact-sensitive…

For novelty, enablement concerns what the prior art discloses, not every characteristic of the historical product. A claim lacks novelty where the prior art…

A patent claim must be construed purposively in light of the specification. A virtual transmission time interval may define permitted cyclic starting points…

Arrow declarations are discretionary. The court must consider justice to both parties, whether the declaration would serve a useful purpose, and any special…

Applications concerning expert evidence and amendments are assessed under the overriding objective. Lateness is a relevant factor, but the court must assess…

A product-by-process patent claim may be construed so that its process features limit infringement, obviousness and sufficiency. A claim directed to enrichment…

For an interim injunction, the claimant must first show that refusing relief is likely to cause irreparable or unquantifiable harm. If damages would adequately…

In assessing obviousness, the court must consider whether the claimed invention was technically obvious to the skilled person. Commercial cost or difficulty is…

For patent infringement, the court must first construe the claim purposively and then consider whether a variant is nevertheless an immaterial variation under…

A later patent action is not an abuse merely because it concerns the same products as earlier proceedings. The court must assess the matter broadly and on its…

A court cannot order fortification of a cross-undertaking in damages after the interim injunction for which it was given has been discharged. Fortification is…

Admission to a confidentiality club requires a fact-sensitive balance between the risk of prejudice from disclosure and the prejudice caused by restricting…

A patentee’s selection of the claims on which it intends to rely at a case management conference is generally an enforced selection of its best case, not an…

An order requiring a defendant to serve a Defence can be made without compromising a pending challenge to the court’s jurisdiction. Such an order is not…

Exclusive jurisdiction under Article 24(4) of Regulation (EU) 1215/2012 prevails over an agreed jurisdiction clause. The court seised must itself decide…

For service out of the jurisdiction in a tort claim, gateway 9 requires a plausible evidential basis for significant damage sustained, or resulting from an act…

An injunction for infringement of a standards-essential patent is not disproportionate merely because the patent is shortly due to expire. Where an implementer…

In patent construction, a technical term must be construed purposively and in the context of the patent. Where the patent’s technical objective can be achieved…

For Article 3(a) of the SPC Regulation, a product must necessarily fall under the invention covered by the basic patent and be specifically identifiable by the…

In a patent revocation and infringement action, the court construed antibody claims according to the specification as a whole and the technical context.…

Trial dates for RAND or FRAND disputes should be fixed by proportionate case management, having regard to the parties’ preparation, prejudice caused by delay…

A confidentiality club established by consent to govern confidential material in patent proceedings ordinarily applies to all material falling within its…

A patent claim is construed according to its language read in the context of the specification. A therapeutic-use limitation cannot be implied where the claim…