AWA Point
China to drive on to the Patent Prosecution Highway
By Troels Peter Rørdam | Posted on June 24, 2010
According to a USPTO press release, the intellectual property offices of China (SIPO) and USA (USPTO) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding on 19 May 2010, which includes establishing a bilateral Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) agreement between the two offices. The PPH agreement will be SIPO’s first, thus driving China onto the Patent Prosecution Highway...
IP in China? It’s not all bad
By AWA | Posted on June 7, 2010
Recent statistics on the outcomes of reported IP litigations in the most important courts in China are encouraging: The total number of trademark-related cases in 2009 handled by the Chinese courts was 6,906, up almost 11 per cent from 2008. 2008 was up by 79 per cent in relation to 2007. Administratively, the numbers are...
Filed under: Insights
Is use of a Community trademark in one of the EU member states sufficient?
By AWA | Posted on May 31, 2010
As is well known, a Community trademark (CTM) must be put into genuine use within five years of the registration date in order to maintain protection. When the Community trademark was launched in 1996, it was decided politically that use “in the Community” was satisfied by use in one member state. This decision was laid...
BRCA patents in Europe
By Niklas Mattsson | Posted on April 1, 2010
An ongoing lawsuit in the US has attracted a lot of attention worldwide. The American Civil Liberties Union has, together with other parties, sued the US Patent and Trademark Office, Myriad Genetics and others. On Monday 29 March 2010, a judge in a federal District Court in New York ruled that the “Myriad patents” in...
Filed under: Insights
New dosage regimen may be patented, but no more Swiss-type claims
By Mikael Henriksson | Posted on February 23, 2010
The Enlarged Board of Appeal of the EPO clarifies, in decision G 2/08 of 19 February 2010, that it is possible to obtain a patent for a medicament known to treat a specific illness for use in a different method for treatment of the same illness. However, such inventions may not be claimed in the...
Tags: Enlarged Board of Appeal. Swiss-type claims, European patent application
The language of proceedings used before the EPO can never be changed
By AWA | Posted on February 18, 2010
The language of proceedings used before the EPO can never be changed – this includes the language used before the international receiving office if that language is English, French or German The Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) has for the second time this week issued a decision. This latest decision, G...
New EPO practice on the patentability of surgical methods
By Mikael Henriksson | Posted on February 17, 2010
The Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office has in its latest decision G 1/07 of 15 February 2010 provided guidelines on the exception to patentability on methods for treatment of the body by surgery. The purpose of this exclusion is to free the medical profession from constraints by patents. The context of...
Tags: Enlarged Board of Appeal, European patent, patentability
How to protect your IP rights in Hong Kong
By Vibeke Warberg Rohde | Posted on February 2, 2010
Many people are aware of the important role that Hong Kong plays for trade in Asia, not least as a gateway to the Chinese market, yet few know much about how to go about protecting their intellectual property rights there. Since 1997 Hong Kong has had its own patent law under which a British or...
Tags: Asia, Chinese, English, Hong Kong, IP rights
Patent Prosecution Highway III – Geographical overview
By Troels Peter Rørdam | Posted on January 18, 2010
The concept of PPH was originally proposed by the Japanese Patent Office (JPO) as a bilateral agreement between the patent offices of two countries on using each other’s search and examination results in treating analogous patent applications, thereby allowing applicants in both offices to obtain analogous patents faster and more efficiently. The first PPH was...
What is the Patent Prosecution Highway?
By Troels Peter Rørdam | Posted on December 21, 2009
The Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) is a concept originally proposed by the Japanese Patent Office (JPO). PPH has the purpose of increasing the speed and improving the quality of the prosecution of patent applications. This is achieved in that the patent offices of two countries make an agreement to use each other’s search and examination...
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