This case follows an earlier UK judgement (Halliburton Energy Services Inc.’s Application) in respect of the formulation of the contribution when assessing the steps of the Aerotel test: the widely accepted test under UK patent law for determining whether claimed subject matter falls within a category of subject matter excluded from protection. The Halliburton judgement […]
We will soon be starting a blog. The blog is an IP primer.
On 1 April 2014, a new rule came into force at the EPO. The rule relates to divisional patent applications and applies to applications filed on or after that date. The new rule effectively repeals the unpopular (and largely ineffective) previous 24-month time limits for the filing of divisional applications.
The new rule allows the filing of divisional patent applications as long as the earlier (parent) application is pending. However, as with the previous rule, this rule comes with a disincentive: there is an additional fee payable for with the application fees. The amount of the additional fee grows progressively with each subsequent generation of divisional applications. The official fee starts at €210 and when it reaches €840 for a fifth divisional patent application it becomes a flat fee for subsequent divisional application. The generation of the new divisional is governed by which application (divisional or parent) is the basis for the new divisional patent application.
One of our Directors, Ross Kay, will be speaking at the Innovation Matters seminar on 30 April, 2014 at the University of Hertfordshire Biopark in Welwyn Garden City. This event is being organised by Enterprise Europe Network East along with Exemplas, the Design Council and UK Trade and Investment. Ross will be speaking about intellectual property and providing a grounding for those who are new to it, or want to fill in gaps in their knowledge. More details and an on-line booking form can be found on the Enterprise Europe Network East website.
On 31 March 2014, the US Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case of Alice Corporation Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank International. The case, referred to by some as Alice in Patentland, is to decide (hopefully once and for all, but we shall see …) the issue of whether claims in patents to computer-implemented inventions are eligible for patent protection under US law. As part of their ruling, the Supreme Court is being asked to decide whether claims to systems and machines, processes, and items of manufacture involving computer-implemented inventions are protectable by patents. We will keep you posted …
For some, one of the allures of the Coca-Cola® drink is that the recipe for the beverage is secret. Recently, Coca-cola has bought a 10% stake in Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. Some years ago, Green Mountain/Keurig developed and sold a single-serve K-cup brewing technology, which like the Nespresso system uses pods to allow customers to prepare single coffee servings without having to make an entire pot. The technology was patented, but the patent expired late in 2012.
However, now with the help of Coca-Cola, Green Mountain is now working on developing and launching the Coca-Cola soft drink portfolio for use in a new cold beverage systems, which should be on sale in early 2015. So how long will the recipe stay secret? Already a small raft of patent applications have been filed on the subject of making carbonated drinks. While it might at first seem like home-brewed Coca-Cola drinks spell the end of the recipe being kept secret, it’s really no different to buying a bottle of the drink and taking it home.
However, Green Mountain’s strong patent position may have been one of the contributing factor’s to Coca-Cola’s investment in the company and, no doubt, the “content” provided by Coca-Cola will contribute to the success of the technology. The one-shot technology, like with coffee, adds a certain caché to the experience, which is no doubt more in keeping with how Coca-Cola would like their product to be perceived.
Some interesting facts about Coca-Cola’s early days …
More information about the company can be found on Coca-Cola’s website.
According to Interbrand, he Coca-Cola brand is the world’s third most valuable brand after Apple® and Google®, valued at $79.2 billion.
Is Apple’s recent victory in a Munich court a hollow victory?
A great deal of attention has been given in the tech/legal media to the Apple patent known as the “slide to unlock” patent. It was recently litigated in Germany.
Those familiar with Apple products will know that it is possible to lock some iPods and iPhones to prevent unauthorised use. To unlock the device, a user has to slide a so-called “slider” across a portion of the device’s screen. This is sometimes accompanied by a request to enter a pin code.
Apple claimed that the patent was infringed by an unlock feature used by two of Motorola Mobility’s (MM’s) smartphone products that run Google’s android operating system. The mention of Google’s operating system is bit of a red herring, because the exact implementation of the unlock feature is a manufacturer matter as opposed to something mandated by Google’s Android operating system. Google is, though, in the process of acquiring MM, which does make things interesting.
A court in Munich has now announced a decision in Apple’s favour, but this does not extend to MM’s Xoom product. However, in a recent statement, a spokesperson for Motorola Mobility stated that this decision will not affect current supply or future sales. Nevertheless, we understand that MM has decided to change the unlocking feature.
It’s not clear whether MM will nevertheless appeal the decision, but what is clear and almost completely ignored by most of the media is that this is not the whole story. In Germany, patent validity is handled by a different court to patent infringement. You therefore have a two-track system. This means that although one court may find a patent is infringed, the other court may find the patent invalid in which case the fact that the patent is infringed is all very interesting, but doesn’t really get you anywhere because you never had any valid patent rights in the first place.
Typically, a court handling the infringement case refrains from making a decision before there has been a pronouncement on the validity of the patent in question. This was also the case for the Apple patent. However, it seems that Apple managed to persuade the court that MM’s attack on the validity of their patent was unlikely to succeed.
Whether this is how things will play out in the court is an entirely different matter. All we will say is that one poster on a news website recently observed that the front gate outside his house had a slide to unlock feature! The matter of validity may therefore not yet be in the bag for Apple. Indeed, a Dutch court has, in the past, declared invalid a corresponding Dutch patent for the same invention.
As the song, album title and saying goes: it ain’t over ’til it’s over!
No Attempt by UK IPO to Reverse Symbian Appeal Judgement
Following a relatively recent decision of the Court of Appeal of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO) has decided not to appeal the decision to the House of Lords (the highest appellate court in the UK).
A review of Computer Implemented Inventions (CIIs) has been requested by the President of the European Patent Office (EPO) by a referral to the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the EPO due to a perceived divergence in case law of the EPO Boards of Appeal. The UK IPO, like the Court of Appeal, feels that it would be premature for the House of Lords to consider this matter before the EPO sinks its teeth into it (if it decides to do so). This means that, for the moment, the Court of Appeal judgement stands and certain types of software-based inventions implemented on a general-purpose computer, amongst other types of hardware, can be patented in the right circumstances.
Apple has reached a pre-trial settlement on undisclosed terms
Apple has reached a settlement with a Vermont firm that claimed that Apple’s iTunes music software infringes their patent.
Court documents show that the patent owner, Mr David Contois, sued Apple in the U.S. District Court of Vermont in June 2005, accusing the company of infringing U.S. Patent No. 5, 864, 868 filed in February 1996 and relating to a computer system and method for controlling a media playing device.
According to this original court complaint, Mr Contois believed current or future Apple employees were in attendance when he first demonstrated his invention at a technology trade show in November 1996.
The case settled on 21 August 1996 only after a number of pre-trial hearings.
US Patent granted for nanofabrication applications
US Patent No. 7, 060, 224 relates to nanofabrication and nanomanufacturing applications of Nanogen Inc.’s microarray technology employed in a product for molecular diagnostic applications. In particular, the patent relates to manipulation and positioning of nanoscale components to build structures.
Nanogen Chairman and CEO, Howard C. Birndorf, said:
“The ‘224 patent demonstrates the underlying strength and robustness of our basic electronic microarray technology and our commitment to continuing fundamental R&D to protect our strong IP position in the nascent and growing field of nanotechnology.”
Co-founder, Professor Michael J. Heller is reported to have said:
“It’s currently relatively easy to make various types of nanoparticles, but it’s hard to put different kinds of nanoparticles and other nanocomponents together.”
“And it’s even harder to combine nanoparticles with components of other size scales, like you would need to do in order to build an integrated sensor device, for example, that could circulate within the body, detecting disease and releasing medication as appropriate. The non-mechanical ‘pick and place’ allows for this type of integrated assembly.”
“Fabricating complex integrated devices right now usually requires that each component be built separately and then assembled. Interfaces that integrate function across the various components can be difficult to achieve.”
“Using the non-mechanical ‘pick and place’ technology described in the ‘224 patent facilitates integrated assembly of these complex structures.”
In addition to the manufacture of Nanogen electronic microarray technology, the technique of the granted patent can be applied to other areas of technology, particularly photovoltaic devices, fuel cells and batteries, but also other technologies: flat panel displays, wireless integrated devices, microcantilever sensor devices, atomic force microscope devices, integrated MEMS devices, integrated microscopic analytical and diagnostic devices, and compact, handheld medical diagnostic devices and systems.
