China’s new Trade Mark Law took effect on 1 May 2014. This is the third amendment of the law after previous amendments in 1993 and 2001 respectively since its adoption in 1982. Overall, the new Trade Mark Law is welcome as it introduces principles of honesty and good faith, tightens […]
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The Hague, March 6, 2014 – The European Patent Office (EPO) has invalidated and revoked Edwards Lifesciences’ entire Spenser patent EP2055266 concerning its market-leading Sapien transcatheter aortic heart valve, which has approval in the U.S., Europe and other countries. Amongst the opponents are giants like Medtronic and Boston Scientific. KIPA […]
Read MoreToday, court proceedings in Sweden concerning intellectual property (IP) rights are handled by several different lines of courts, which may not be optimal from a legal certainty point of view and with regard to procedural cost effectiveness. A reform of this system is on the way…
Read MoreThe German Patent and Trade Mark Office (GPTO) has revised the German Designs Act with effect from 1 January 2014 and major changes include: – The German term “Geschmacksmuster” has been replaced by the term “registered design”. – A design invalidity proceeding before the GPTO has been introduced. Before, a […]
Read MoreOn October 18, 2013 the Administrative Council of the EPO has voted to amend Rule 36 EPC to remove the highly controversial 24 month time limit applied to European divisional application filings. Starting April 1, 2014, the EPO will return back to ‘old’ practice, namely that …
Read MoreThe International Trade Commission on August 9, 2013, announced that certain Samsung smartphone products violate Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, 19 U.S.C. 1337, by infringing Apple patents on headset plug circuitry and touch screen commands. The ITC issued an order to
Read MoreMuch is being written about the Supreme Court decision of 13 June 2013 regarding the patentability of naturally occurring DNA molecules. In the words of the Court – “…genes and the information they encode are not patent eligible under [35 U.S.C.]§101 simply because they have been isolated from the surrounding genetic material.” […]
Read MoreThe EPO and Google have been working together to bring you a translation service optimised for patent documents – Patent Translate With the most recent addition of Chinese, Patent Translate now enables free on-the-fly-translation of patents from, and into, English for 14 languages. It is estimated that by the year […]
Read MoreThe International Trademark Association (INTA) is a global association of trademark owners and professionals dedicated to supporting trademarks and related intellectual property in order to protect consumers and to promote fair and effective commerce.
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