AWA Point
The challenge of turning cities into successful brands
By AWA | Posted on April 16, 2012
From the legal point of view, geographical names don’t make ideal brands. Most trademark laws specifically exclude such names from protection. Everyone in a city has a justifiable interest in using the city’s name to tell the world where their products or services are produced. So it’s easy to see that building a brand based...
Tags: Branding, trademarks
India Grants the First Compulsory License
By Jeanette Jakobsson | Posted on March 30, 2012
The Compulsory License Application No. 1 of 2011, the first of its kind in the history of the Indian Patents Act 1970, concerns the anti-cancer drug Sorafenib, where the patentee is Bayer Corporation and the applicant for a compulsory license is Natco Pharma Limited. The anti-cancer drug Sorafenib, sold under the brand name NEXAVAR, is...
Getting Personal in Sweden: Liability of Directors, Officers, and Owners for their Company’s IP Infringement
By Robin Berzelius | Posted on March 23, 2012
1. Introduction Picture a scenario where a plaintiff in an IP infringement case in Sweden has received a well earned final ruling in its favor, or perhaps gotten a preliminary injunction issued against an accused infringer. As the plaintiff is celebrating its success, it receives news that the infringer recently emptied its warehouses of infringing...
New Patent Prosecution Highway Agreement between the DKPTO and Russias ROSPATENT enters into force
By Troels Peter Rørdam | Posted on February 20, 2012
As mentioned in my previous blog entry dated 23 January 2012, the DKPTO announced that due to user demand efforts to establish a PPH-agreement with the Russian Patent Office had been initiated. Now, the efforts have matured into a PPH-agreement between DKPTO and ROSPATENT, which entered into force on 1 February 2012. Prosecution via the...
Which business methods are patentable in the US?
By AWA | Posted on February 9, 2012
When the Bilski decision was handed down by the US Supreme Court in 2010, it was taken as a clear indication that business methods would now be more difficult to patent in the US. After all, the Supreme Court came to the conclusion that the subject-matter at stake, a method for hedging risk, was abstract,...
Tags: business methods, Patent, US
EPO Enlarged Board of Appeal repeats obligation to raise objections in time
By AWA | Posted on February 1, 2012
Last week, the European Patent Office released two new decisions by the Enlarged Board of Appeal on petitions for review, R 2/11 and R 10/11. Both the underlying petitions were based on what the petitioners regarded as fundamental procedural defects before respective Boards of Appeal 3.2.04 and 3.2.03. Both cases are appeals from opposition proceedings. In R...
New PPH-agreement between Denmark and Israel
By Troels Peter Rørdam | Posted on January 23, 2012
The year of 2012 has arrived with new possibilities for Danish patent applicants who wish to obtain a patent abroad in a faster and more cost efficient way: A PPH-agreement, on a pilot project basis, between The Danish Patent and Trademark Office (DKPTO) and the Israeli Patent Office has taken effect from 5 January 2012, thus...
Claiming a non-therapeutic use with inseparably associated therapeutic effect
By AWA | Posted on January 9, 2012
A use of a substance or composition for the treatment of humans by therapy is excluded from patentability according to the EPC Article 53(c). However, claiming a non-therapeutic use of a substance or composition may still fall under this same exclusion if the non-therapeutic use is inseparably associated with a therapeutic use. This was confirmed...
Court of Justice of the EU confirms zero or negative duration for SPCs
By Sidsel Hauge | Posted on December 13, 2011
On 8 December 2011, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued its judgment in case C-125/10 (“Merck”). This case concerns the duration of a Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) according to Article 13 of the SPC Regulation EG/469/2009. Summary of the case Merck applied for a SPC for the product Sitaglipin under conditions...
Tags: CJ, ECJ, Patent, Pharmaceuticals, SPC
Focus on China
By Niklas Mattsson | Posted on November 18, 2011
The fact that China is growing in importance is well known. To Awapatent, this growth is visible in our day-to-day work, both from the questions we get about IP in China from our European clients, and from the growing demand for our services as a European firm for Chinese clients. Naturally, we make it a...
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