A recent decision from the US shows the importance of IP in the context of renewable energy The decision (Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy A/S v. General Electric Co, U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, No. 1:21-cv-10216) also highlights the potential that IP rights such as patents have to allow those in the field … Read more

By Emma Iles, Anna Vandervliet and Byron Turner The Federal Court has recently published its decision following the first instance trial on the merits in the ongoing stoush between Reckitt Benckiser (RB) (manufacturer of FINISH dishwasher products) and Henkel (manufacturer of SOMAT dishwasher products). Read more

The UPC Committee has issued a consolidated version of the UPC Rules of Procedure following the approval of final changes to the 18th draft in July. These Rules are now in force as of 1 September 2022. Consolidated versions of the Rules are also available in French and German. Read more

How should digital assets be treated in terms of property? This is what the Law Commission of England and Wales has been considering in its consultation paper paper on the recognition and protection of digital assets which is open for responses until 4 November 2022. The consultation paper recommends law reform to recognise a third … Read more

By Sue Gilchrist, Aaron Hayward and Byron Turner Even the High Court of Australia has found the question of patentability of computer-implemented inventions challenging. As a result of an equally divided opinion, an appeal from a decision of the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia,[1] which found that Aristocrat’s patent claims to electronic … Read more

The creation ("minting") and sale and use of NFTs raises many IP issues which we have discussed in our previous posts in our IP in NFTs series. However, brand owners and product manufacturers must also be vigilant in monitoring the virtual marketplaces to ensure that third parties are not creating NFTs that infringe their own IP rights.  This is especially true where the company is considering releasing or has released NFTs, because the public will begin to associate the brand with NFTs (which could include infringing NFTs).  There are several strategies that companies could adopt to minimise this risk. Read more

We previously reported on the UK Intellectual Property Office's (UKIPO) consultation on standard essential patents (SEPs) when it was launched in December 2021 (see here). The responses have now been published and the full report is available here. There were a mix of views – with some respondents happy with the current system, while others complaining that it favours either SEP holders or implementers. A number of proposals were made for potential reforms to the system. Read more

On the date that the UPC Agreement comes into force, the German prohibition on double patenting will be amended so that it only applies to European patents that have been "opted out" of the exclusive jurisdiction of the UPC. For European patents that have not been opted out of the UPC and for the new unitary patents, patentees will be allowed to maintain a German national patent in parallel to the European patent and infringement litigation before the German courts will be possible in relation to the national patent. Read more