• Confidentiality restrictions around clinical trials and prior public use (T 0670/20)

    http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2023/01/confidentiality-restrictions-around.html The recent Board of Appeal decision in T 0670/20 considered whether patients in a clinical trial were under conditions of confidentiality. The patent was for a tablet formulation that had been given to patients in a clinical trial conducted before the patent had been filed. The question became whether the patients... Continue reading

     
  • Bad faith unleashed

    http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2023/01/bad-faith-unleashed.html Bad faith is probably one of the most wide-ranging concepts in trade mark law. According to the CJEU in Sky and Others, it applies to any situation– “where it is apparent […] that the proprietor of a trade mark has filed the application for registration of that mark not... Continue reading

     
  • Geographical Indications and the Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919: Then and Now

    http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2023/01/geographical-indications-and-versailles.html This Kat has recently been researching the impact of wars on geographical indications (GIs). She would like to share with Kat readers some thoughts on how features of the Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919 and its aftermath resonate with the modern-day GI legislation. Background The Treaty of Versailles was... Continue reading

     
  • Friday Fantasies

    http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2023/01/friday-fantasies.html It is nearly the end of January. Here is the latest report on the interesting opportunities and events happening in the next few months.  2023 ISHTIP WORKSHOP Image by Riana Harvey The International Society for the History and Theory of Intellectual Property (ISHTIP) at the Tel Aviv University will held its 14th Annual... Continue reading

     
  • Pandemic measures cease but ViCo Boards of Appeal oral proceedings continue

    http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2023/01/pandemic-measures-cease-but-vico-boards.html The EPO has announced the cessation of pandemic measures. The announcement (here) states that going forward it will now be at the discretion of individual Boards of Appeal to summon parties to and conduct oral proceedings either in person or by VICO.  The EPO has also launched a user... Continue reading

     
  • When is an IP agreement between a university and a student inventor unfair?

    http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2023/01/when-is-ip-agreement-between-university.html In its last judgment of 2022, the Patents Court issued a decision in the case of Oxford University Innovation Ltd v Oxford Nanoimaging Ltd [2022] EWHC 3200 (Pat)). In this 650-paragraph judgement, the court ruled that students can in certain situations be “consumers” vis a vis the university under... Continue reading

     
  • Never too Late: If you missed the IPKat last week!

    http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2023/01/never-too-late-if-you-missed-ipkat-last_26.html A remarkably focused Kat If you missed last week’s IP posts, this is the perfect time to catch up. Copyright Kateryna Militsyna and Liubov Maidanyk unpacked the major legislative changes brought by the new Ukrainian Law on Copyright and Related Rights, adopted in December 2022. Neil Wilkof focused on... Continue reading

     
  • What principles should guide African governments in realising the right to research in Africa?

    http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2023/01/what-principles-should-guide-african.html In The right to research, Appadurai made the argument to “recognise that research is a specialised name for a generalised capacity, the capacity to make disciplined inquiries into those things we need to know, but do not know yet”. Since then, various scholars have aligned with the same or... Continue reading

     
  • [Guest post] New Ukrainian Law on Copyright and Related Rights

    http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2023/01/guest-post-new-law-on-copyright-and.html The IPKat has received and is pleased to host the following legislative update on the new Ukrainian Copyright Law from Kateryna Militsyna and Liubov Maidanyk (both Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv). Here’s what Kateryna and Liubov write: New Ukrainian Law on Copyright and Related Rights by Kateryna Militsyna and Liubov Maidanyk... Continue reading

     
  • Book Review: A Practitioner’s Guide to European Patent Law (with a discount code)

    http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2023/01/book-review-practitioners-guide-to.html This Kat is delighted to review “A Practitioner’s Guide to European Patent Law: For National Practice and the Unified Patent Court” (Hart Publishing, 2022, 664 pp.). The book, now in its second edition, is authored by Paul England, with contributions from several other authors, including our former GuestKat Peter... Continue reading