The EPO has recently issued its annual report for 2020, a difficult year for most by all accounts. However, despite the challenges of the pandemic, demand for European patents remained strong. The overall number of new filings was stable, down just 0.7% from 2019, and in many areas patent activity increased. In particular, the medical technology, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals sectors saw significant increases in the number of patent filings in 2020 as compared with 2019. This is...
It's the 8th March 2021, which is International Women's Day and also falls in British Science Week. What better time to showcase a website dedicated to Women in Engineering, in particular in the UK! When I was considering engineering as a career my Aunt (an Engineer) pointed me to the WISE campaign. What I've only just realised is that when they were helping me, and providing me with information about what qualifications I needed, what might help me get a place at University, what specialism...
I recently wrote about the European Patent Office publishing a study showing that companies, particularly small and medium enterprises, which had registered Intellectual Property were out-performing those which did not. Of course, such statistics are always open to interpretation and so I was very interested this week to read the story of the 3Doodler 3D Pen and how a pro-active Intellectual Property filing strategy ended up saving the business. This is a real-life example where a strong...
I am, as one might imagine given my profession, a passionate advocate for businesses protecting their Intellectual Property to secure an advantage over their competitors. I was therefore heartened to see the recent study published by the European Patent Office and the European Union Intellectual Property Office indicating that companies that own at least one Patent, Registered Design or Trade Mark generated on average 20% higher revenues per employee and were found to pay 19% higher wages on...
We are pleased to announce that, as part of our partnership with the Sutton Trust (www.suttontrust.com), Boult Wade Tennant LLP is hosting the first of its Pathways to Law event. The Sutton Trust is a UK based educational charity which aims to improve social mobility and address educational disadvantage amongst young people. Boult Wade Tennant LLP is very pleased to be the first firm of Chartered Trade Mark and Patent attorneys to partner with the Trust. Opening up the professions to all is...
The German Bundestag, which is the first chamber of parliament, had a debate on the Patent Modernization act on January 27, 2021. A first draft of the Patent Modernization Act has already been discussed by the author at the beginning of 2020. In the meantime, several parties provided comments. Subsequently, a second draft was made, which was also open to public consultation. The legislator found that there is only a selective need for simplification and modernization of the Patent Act. Most...
The European Patent Office have recently published a preview of their new Guidelines for Examination. These will take effect on 1 March 2022. There are a number of significant changes and my colleagues will be reporting on some of these soon. It is not widely recognized that these are the first set of EPO Guidelines published after a public consultation. This consultation took place in March and April 2020. This timing, at the start of the global Covid pandemic, probably did not help to...
A German maker of a very famous food processor has won first instance infringement proceedings in Spain versus a German discounter chain manufacturing and distributing an allegedly similar product which retails at around 30% of the price of the original product. The original food processor constitutes the dominant design amongst cooking machines and is protected by an extensive value-driven IP strategy which does not only avoid imitations in a classical sense. The strategy is also designed...
According to current German practice, a preliminary injunction can - amongst other requirements - only be granted if the patent has completed its "baptism of fire". This means that the patent in question must have survived first instance opposition proceedings before the DPMA or the EPO or revocation proceedings before the Federal Patent Court. This practice is established e.g. by the Higher Regional Courts of Düsseldorf, Karlsruhe, Hamburg and Munich and limits the amount of patents...
I found the article that the quote below is taken from really interesting on many levels. There were many quotes I could have chosen, for example the section entitled "Understanding Urgency vs. Importance" is also definitely worth a read! I read the article firstly from the perspective of someone leading a team, it gave me ideas for how to motiviate them (and more importantly myself) at a time where I think I'm not alone in being very busy, but at times frustrated with being at home all of...
During my time as a Patent Attorney I've often been asked why Intellectual Property (IP) is important, and more specifically why a prospective client should prioritise protecting their invention.This article summarises the answer to this question well - it's important to protect your IP fully, at least from a patent point of view, to ensure you would be able to prevent others taking your ideas and using them for themselves with simple workarounds. Having robust protection in place can also be...
Following the vote on the UPC Accompanying Act in the German Bundestag in late 2020, two new constitutional complaints were filed. As a consequence, the German Constitutional Court has asked the German Federal President to postpone the execution of the law. One of the constitutional complaints was filed by the individual who already had partial success with the first constitutional complaint in early 2020, which led to the subsequent voting in late 2020. The new complaint also contains an...
Engineering and Designs practice group partner James Short, and Chemical and Materials practice group partner Rohan Setna have contributed to the recently published Patent Litigation Law Review – Edition 4. Their chapter, entitled “Oppositions and appeals before the European Patent Office”, discusses the European Patent Office's streamlined opposition procedure and the general trend of the practice of the Boards of Appeal in respect of opposition cases in the light of the updated Rules of...
Following Brexit, EU Trade Marks (EUTMs) and Registered Community Designs (RCDs) registered as at 11pm on 31st December 2020 were recreated as UK rights, with the same priority and filing dates. More than two million trade marks and designs have now been recreated, ensuring continuation of protection, with huge thanks to the efforts of the UK Intellectual Property Office. There is a nine month window (until 30 September 2021) to reapply in the UK for EUTMs or RCDs that had been filed but not...
Some positive industry news in a year of challenge! WIPO has now published its annual report showing a 5.9% global increase in trade mark filing activity in 2019. IP offices in Asia received the highest numbers of trade mark applications (71%) of the world total. Indeed, in 2019, some 43% of all active trade mark registrations in the world were in China. The surge in Iranian trade mark applications was also interesting to see. The full facts and figures from the report can be viewed here.
