The doctrine of equivalents is a staple patent law principle, addressing the tension between providing fair protection to innovative ideas and ensuring legal certainty for third parties. However, like most patent laws, the...more
12/18/2024
/ Appeals ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Doctrine of Equivalents ,
EU ,
European Patent Convention ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Inventions ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patents ,
The Hague ,
Unified Patent Court ,
Unified Patent System
In a November 12, 2024, decision, the Court of Appeal ("CoA") of the Unified Patent Court ("UPC") has clarified under which circumstances a European patent that has been opted out and has been the subject of legal proceedings...more
The Unified Patent Court ("UPC") and the unitary patent—which came into force in June 2023—were created at the request of European industry in order to benefit from a single title (the unitary patent) covering the territory...more
The European Patent Office ("EPO") currently requires applicants to adapt descriptions to allowable claims. This practice is risky, expensive, and not clearly grounded in the law....more
The Situation: Even after the introduction of the European Unitary Patent Court, Germany remains a key battleground in major patent litigations. In the bifurcated German litigation system, nullity cases are heard before the...more
7/26/2024
/ Confidential Information ,
Germany ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Inventions ,
Non-Disclosure Agreement ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent Validity ,
Patents ,
Prior Art ,
Public Disclosure
The European Patent Office ("EPO") has committed to specific timelines for its new practice of accelerating opposition proceedings....more
The UPC, a single patent court for European Union Member States, has published the first statistics on its case load since its establishment in 2023. Between June 1, 2023, and January 31, 2024, a total of 196 cases were filed...more
The redistribution of competences to the Munich, Paris, and Milan central chambers takes shape and brings complexity for chemistry patents....more
In Short -
The Situation: With the introduction of the Unified Patent Court ("UPC") system in Europe, the co-ownership of patents will have material effect on patents with unitary effect ("Unitary Patent")....more
In Short -
The Situation: While the national case laws of most Unified Patent Court ("UPC") Member States generally accept infringement actions by licensees, the scope and requirements of such actions differ greatly. The...more
Judges were recruited from across Europe and appointed in accordance with the decisions of the UPC Administrative Committee. The UPC will be led by German Federal Court of Justice Judge Klaus Grabinski as president of the...more
Multiple reports reliably suggest that the European Patent Office ("EPO") will end the "10-day rule" for calculating deadlines on November 1, 2023. Thereafter, deadlines will be simply calculated on the basis of the date...more
The creation of a new European Unified Patent Court (“UPC”) and a new patent with unitary effect (“Unitary Patent”), in which almost all member states of the European Union participate, is the most important change in the...more
The previously contemplated fee for opting out of "classical" European patents from the Unified Patent Court ("UPC") system has been abolished by the UPC Preparatory Committee. The UPC Case Management System will also allow...more
The Situation: Artificial intelligence and machine learning ("AI/ML") play an increasingly important role in a number of industries, and those industries are seeking ways to guard their innovations by means of copyright and...more
10/25/2018
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Computer-Related Inventions ,
EU ,
European Patent Office ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Patent Applications ,
Patent Examinations ,
Patent-Eligible Subject Matter ,
Patents ,
Popular ,
Technology
The Situation: The United Kingdom is positioning itself as the "go to" location to develop, test, and drive automated vehicles, but questions remain as to how its existing product liability regime should respond to this...more
The Background: The automotive industry has achieved a number of technological advances aimed at developing connected cars, automated vehicles, and ultimately autonomous driving. These innovations are expected to pose a...more
9/7/2018
/ Antitrust Provisions ,
Automotive Industry ,
Competition ,
Competition Authorities ,
Connected Cars ,
Cybersecurity ,
Driverless Cars ,
EU ,
FRAND ,
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Monopolization ,
Popular
The Background: The automotive industry has achieved a number of technological advances aimed at developing connected cars, automated vehicles, and ultimately autonomous driving. These innovations are expected to pose a...more
8/31/2018
/ Automotive Industry ,
Connected Cars ,
Driverless Cars ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
FRAND ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Internet of Things ,
IP License ,
Patents ,
Popular ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Safety Standards ,
Telecommunications
The Situation: The liability regimes for product liability related to driverless cars in various European countries remain far from harmonized, and lawmakers trail behind the faster moving reality.
The Plan: The European...more
The Situation: In European patent law, opposition against a patent grant can be based only on particular grounds, with one of the grounds being insufficiency of disclosure, meaning that the invention is not disclosed clearly...more
As interest in autonomous vehicles accelerates, and as the related technologies evolve, the vehicles' manufacturers and their suppliers are preparing to encounter a broad range of legal issues.
This Jones Day White Paper...more
11/17/2017
/ Automotive Industry ,
Connected Cars ,
Copyright ,
Driverless Cars ,
FMVSS ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Legislative Agendas ,
NHTSA ,
Safety Standards ,
Software Licenses ,
Software Patents ,
Technology Sector ,
Trade Secrets ,
V2V
In recent years, carmakers and suppliers have significantly increased the number of patent applications they file in the United States and abroad, but patent protection may not always be the right tool. Trade secret...more
5/3/2017
/ Automotive Industry ,
Connected Cars ,
Driverless Cars ,
Innovation ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patents ,
Popular ,
Software ,
Wireless Technology