See the updated IP section of the revised Herbert Smith Freehills Brexit Legal Guide which reviews the IP and pharma elements of the draft Withdrawal Agreement endorsed by the EU Council on 25 November 2018 and the no deal provisions as… Read more

The new EU Trade Mark Directive (2015/2436), designed, in part, to make trade mark law across the EU fit for the digital age, will be implemented into UK law on 14 January 2019 via the Trade Marks Regulations 2018 (the… Read more

The UPC Preparatory Committee has issued a “Status of the Unified Patent Court Project” statement and review of 2018, confirming that there are now 16 states which have ratified the UPC, and that German ratification is still awaited (dependent on the… Read more

The Advocate General of the CJEU proposed a narrow interpretation of Article    3(d) in the Opinion given yesterday in Abraxis Bioscience LLC v Comptroller General of Patents 13 December 2018, one that would marginalise the effect of the CJEU's decision in… Read more

Key recent developments in the United Kingdom and Europe relating to patents and the pharmaceutical sector This issue reports on several ground-breaking decisions from the UK courts on second medical use patents and skinny labels, infringement by equivalents and the… Read more

Clarity and precision in a trade mark description are the winners in the Court of Appeal Cadbury's attempt to argue its trade mark registration for the colour purple was actually a series mark which could be split and partially maintained… Read more

The Italian Government approved a draft Bill on 21 November 2018 aimed at adapting the Italian IP Code to the Unitary Patent Regulation (EU 1257/2012) and the Unified Patent Court (UPC) Agreement. The next step before the Bill is passed… Read more

Novartis Farma S.p.A. v Italian Medicines Agency and Roche Italia S.p.A. On 21 November 2018, the CJEU issued an important decision in Novartis Farma v Italian Medicines Agency and Roche Italia et al. (C-29/17). The case was referred to the… Read more

A French Court has upheld the validity of a Supplementary Protection Certificate ("SPC") protecting the ezetimibe+simvastatin combination under Article 3(a) of the SPC Regulation. Merck Sharp & Dohme ("MSD") is the owner of a basic patent covering the compound ezetimibe.… Read more

As was widely reported yesterday evening, the Draft Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community (the Draft Withdrawal Agreement (14 November 2018)), detailing the arrangements… Read more

Commercial impact Yesterday's Supreme Court decision in Warner-Lambert v Mylan is disappointing news for patentees who may have made significant investment in R&D to develop new uses for known medicines. The full judgment and press release can be found here.… Read more

Unwired Planet International Limited v Huawei Technologies Co. Limited [2018] EWCA Civ 2344 The Court of Appeal has endorsed the approach taken by Birss J at the first instance in relation to determining fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) royalties and… Read more

As part of the French Law on the Protection of Trade Secrets dated 31 July 2018, French lawmakers have finally adopted a long-awaited array of confidentiality rules covering the trade secrets that are being relied upon in cases that come… Read more

Key recent developments in the United Kingdom and Europe relating to patents and the pharmaceutical sector The CJEU has provided its preliminary ruling in Teva v Gilead on the meaning of Article 3(a) in the context of a medicinal product… Read more

The EPO has recently published the 2018 revision to its Guidelines for Examination, which are generally updated annually to take into account developments in patent law and practice. For a complete list of sections that have been amended this year,… Read more

The UK Government has today launched a consultation on the role of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) post-Brexit "seeking views on how the MHRA legislation and regulatory processes would have to be modified in the event of… Read more

The latest tranche of "no deal" technical notices was released yesterday afternoon by the UK Government. Amongst them are several notices that highlight the Brexit issues faced by intellectual property right owners and, in some cases, confirm the Government's approach to resolving them. The… Read more

Here's a short video made for Practical Law, in which Herbert Smith Freehills IP and Employment Professional Support Consultants, Rachel Montagnon and Anna Henderson, discuss the impact of the UK's recent Trade Secrets (Enforcement etc) Regulations 2018 and practical approaches to protecting confidential information and… Read more

In the second reading of the Digital Copyright Directive by the European Parliament on 12 September 2018, the controversial Articles 11 and 13 were adopted but with amendments. These articles provide for: a specific right of digital reproduction for the press in relation to… Read more

The UK Government issued the first batch of its Brexit "No Deal" Technical Notices on 23 August 2018. These are designed to provide guidance to businesses and other interested parties on how to deal with the problems that a "no deal" scenario… Read more

On 24 July Bulgaria ratified the Protocol on Provisional Application of the UPC Agreement (Protocol). Four more ratifications/declarations are needed, including Germany, for the Protocol to come into effect and allow the practical workings of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) to… Read more

IP rights which are designated as applying across the EU (EU trade marks, Community plant variety rights, Community registered designs and Community unregistered designs) and those, qualification for which involves activity within the EU (such as database rights), are all… Read more

On 25 July 2018, Advocate General Wathelet issued his opinion in an interesting case pending before the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) (C-310/17) concerning copyright over the taste of a food product. The AG took the view that… Read more

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has today delivered its decision on the interpretation of Article 3(a) SPC Regulation in Case C-121/17 Teva v Gilead. The CJEU has said that in the case of an SPC for… Read more

Italian Legislative Decree 63 - 11 May 2018, implementing Directive (EU) 2016/943 on trade secrets, entered into force on 22 June 2018. The Italian legal system was already at the forefront of trade secret protection, affording twenty years' protection to… Read more

The UK Government's White Paper detailing its proposal for the future relationship between the UK and the EU (published on 12 July 2018) includes a limited number of proposals relating to intellectual property and cyber security as follows: The UK… Read more

Key recent developments in the United Kingdom and Europe relating to patents and the pharmaceutical sector English courts begin to consider the new Doctrine of Equivalents as applied by the Supreme Court in Actavis v Lilly, and continue to accept… Read more

The Trade Secrets (Enforcement, etc.) Regulations 2018 (the "Regulations") came into force on 9 June 2018 and transpose Directive (EU) 2016/943 (the "Directive") into UK law. Summary: The aim of the Directive is to create a level playing field by… Read more

The European Commission issued a proposal on 28 May 2018 to change the rules around Supplementary Protection Certificates (Regulation (EC) 469/2009), which if approved will substantially impact patent rights in the pharmaceutical sector. Before being launched on a European market,… Read more

In a blow for rights-holders, the UK Supreme Court (UKSC) has today decided that ISPs should not bear the implementation costs for website blocking orders in Cartier International AG and others v British Telecommunications Plc and another [2018] UKSC 28.  … Read more