Germany has now ratified the Unified Patent Court Agreement and, according to its terms, it comes into force on the first day of the fourth month following this final ratification, i.e. 1 June 2023.

On 19 December 2023, the Federal Patent Court declared the German part of the European patent EP 1 857 122 B1 of CureVac of Tübingen invalid following an action for revocation brought by BioNTech from Mainz.

The Higher Regional Court of Koblenz prohibited Eckes-Granini from marketing "Hohes C Immun Water" due to misleading health claims, citing EU regulations. The court ruled that "Immun Water" suggests unverified immune benefits, which violates authorized health claim standards.

An interesting decision has emerged from the UK Patents Court supporting the patentability of an artificial neural network (ANN) system.

With the much anticipated Unitary Patent likely to come into effect later this year, the European Commission has raised the possibility of creating a unitary supplementary protection certificate.

Since 1 June 2023, European patents with unitary effect (colloquially referred to as "unitary patent" or also "EU patent") will be registered at the European Patent Office, provided they are requested there.

The General Court has upheld a EUIPO Board of Appeal decision invalidating an EU figurative trade mark featuring the letters "MK" and the words "MICHAEL MICHELE" (shown below on the left)...

It is advisable to ensure ALL of your client's UK rights, including UK designations of IRs have a valid UK AFS.

G1/24 is a decision of the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) following a referral from the Technical Board of Appeal in case T 439/22.

The report highlights some startling statistics on the plastics industry generally, including its history.

It is quite common in the fashion and beauty industry to use the first name and surname of the owner as a company brand name.

The EPO Board of Appeal has approved a patent for a beverage prepared from a barley plant. The plant carries a natural gene mutation which causes the drinks made from the extract of the barley to taste better.

Fast food giant McDonald's has been faced with the partial loss of their EU trade mark for one of their most popular products, the Big Mac. The trade mark was first registered in 1996 but has now lost protection...

The UKIPO has issued a decision on a patent application (by Motorola) regarding the patent-eligibility of a dual-screen mobile device.

The UK's Intellectual Property Office (‘IPO') can be asked, for a small fee, to give an opinion on the validity or infringement (or both) of a UK patent or UK registration of a European patent.

In its judgment of 4 May 2023, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled for the first time on the prerequisites of the claim for damages under Art. 82 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The company Inline3D specialises in the development and production of customised optical measuring systems for use in series production.

The European General Court's ruling emphasizes strict distinctiveness criteria for minimalist trademarks, rejecting Coinbase's geometric logo as insufficiently indicative of commercial origin.

Prior to 1 January 2021, an application for an SPC required details of the first Marketing Authorisation issued within the EEA for the relevant product.

The Practice Note simply says Examiners should not object to inventions involving ANNs under the "program for a computer" exclusion.