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On 4 June 2019, the German Federal Court of Justice upheld a ruling by the German Federal Patent Court in which the latter court denied an application for a compulsory license under a patent related to the treatment of cholesterol-related disorders (Case X ZB 2/19). This decision is in line with previous German jurisprudence that has, with a few exceptions, been restrictive to grant compulsory licenses.
Continue Reading German Federal Court of Justice Denies Compulsory License on Anti-Cholesterol Drug Patent

On 6 September 2018, the German Federal Patent Court denied an application for a (preliminary) compulsory license under a patent related to the treatment of cholesterol-related disorders to the Applicant, group companies of a French pharmaceutical company (Case 3 LiQ 1/18). This decision is in line with previous jurisprudence of the court that has, with very few exceptions, been …
Continue Reading German Federal Patent Court Denies Compulsory License on Anti-Cholesterol Drug Patent

The 13th People’s National Congress (“NPC”) recently approved the State Council’s proposal to restructure China’s State Intellectual Property Office (“SIPO”). The proposal intends to consolidate the administration of trademarks and patents and to streamline the enforcement of IPR in China.
Continue Reading China Unveils Plan to Restructure State Intellectual Property Office

In April 2018, Amazon Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of e-commerce giant Amazon, was granted a patent relating to a “technology for a streaming data marketplace” by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The technology underlying the patent is described as gathering (online) data streams from various sources and enhancing those streams “by correlating the raw data with additional data.” The patent description lists a number of potential use cases for the streaming data feeds that participants in the market place are offering subscriptions to. One notable use case relates to “bitcoin transactions,” with the ultimate goal of identifying users of the virtual currency by their Bitcoin addresses.
Continue Reading The Bitcoin Implications of Amazon’s New Streaming Data Patent

According to reports published on 11 June 2017, the German Federal Constitutional Court has requested the Federal President of Germany to refrain from signing the law that is necessary to ratify the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (UPC). The president has agreed to comply with this request. The president’s signing is the last step required for a law to come into force after it has already passed both legislative chambers in Germany.
Continue Reading UPC: German Ratification Postponed Due to a Request by the German Federal Constitutional Court

The future of the European Unified Patent Court (UPC) appears to look a bit clearer following recent ratification activities. On 16 January 2017, the Preparatory Committee for the UPC announced on its website that it is working under the assumption that the UPC can become operational in December 2017. However, the Committee stated that this timeline is conditional on a number of factors, with the most important being “the necessary ratifications of the [UPC Agreement] and accession to the Protocol on Provisional Application”. So far, twelve EU Member States have ratified the UPC Agreement, including France (14 March 2014) and Italy (10 February 2017).
Continue Reading German Parliament Approves Ratification of the UPC Agreement

On 18 November 2016, the European Commission published a notice on the application of certain key provisions within Regulation (EC) No. 141/2000 on orphan medicinal products (the “Orphan Regulation”). Orphan medicinal products are medicinal products that are used for the diagnosis, prevention or treatment of rare diseases. An orphan designation allows a pharmaceutical company to benefit from EU incentives to develop a medicinal product, such as fee waivers for the regulatory procedures or a ten year market exclusivity.
Continue Reading European Commission Publishes Revised Guidelines on Criteria for Orphan Designations of Medicinal Products

busy Street scene with neon signs in Hong KongIntellectual Property (“IP”) rights are only as strong as the means to enforce them. Arbitration, as a private and confidential procedure, is increasingly being used to resolve disputes involving IP rights, especially when the dispute is between parties located in different jurisdictions. With the introduction of the Arbitration (Amendment) Bill 2016 (“Bill”), the Hong Kong…