Law JournalFeeds

Legal context

The competitiveness of a patent becomes crucial for enforcement and utilization of the patent rights, which are required for protection of business and ensuring of profits of companies. However, there have been few quantitative studies on the competitiveness of a patent. This study investigates quantitative indicators of the competitiveness of a patent by analysing patents involved in patent infringement lawsuits filed in trial courts in Japan.

Key points

It is found that ratios of the numbers of independent claims to references cited by examiners have high correlations with the competitiveness of a patent. This study indicates that ensuring of the maximal scope with avoidance of prior inventions is critical for improvement of the competitiveness of a patent.

Practical significance

Patent practitioners must perform claim-drafting recognizing differences among independent claims, each of which overlaps another independent claim in order to satisfy the requirement of unity of invention stipulated in patent laws of many countries to obtain winnable patents. Thus a high degree of perceptiveness in patent practice, which correlates with the ability of a patent practitioner, is required to make plural independent claims to fully cover the maximal scope within the restriction of unity of [...]

Legal context

Recent case law from various national jurisdictions, including Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and the UK, shows that European design law is predominantly governed by the concept of reciprocity. This doctrine becomes primarily manifest in the relation between the individual character and the scope of protection of the asserted design-in-suit as well as in the identity of the ‘informed user’ and the ‘designer’, demonstrating that the level of acquisition and enforcement of design rights are inversely linked and much deeper intertwined than, for instance, in trade mark law.

Key points

Differing from the latter, European design law does not accept impairment or strengthening of design rights after the date of filing of the application or the date of priority; the underlying scope of protection of the asserted design-in-suit is static, not flexible, and conclusively depends on its degree of individual character as determined at that date.

Practical significance

Consequences of the concept of reciprocity will encourage design owners and practitioners to rethink their design filing strategy (both in Europe and when claiming foreign priority) in order to improve their position between Scylla and Charybdis—striving for the broadest-possible scope of protection without inviting others to tackle the design’s [...]

Legal context

In France, the Enforcement Directive (2004/48/EC) of 29 April 2004 was finally implemented by the Law of 29 October 2007. This law prompted an in-depth modification of French IP law. Indeed, since the Directive is a patchwork of pre-existing national legislation from various Member States, some of its provisions, such as the right to information for example, were completely unknown to French practitioners.

Key points

The aim of this article is to provide an overview of some of the most important provisions of the Law of 29 October 2007 and of their application by the French courts up to now. Although some measures, such as saisie-contrefaçon and the assessment of damages have been efficiently harmonized, almost 2 years of application of the new provisions by the French Courts have exposed some hesitation and divergence among judges, notably as regards provisional measures and the right to information, as well as uncertainties as to the organization of proceedings.

Practical significance

The law of 29 October 2007 (‘the Law’) represents a weapon of major importance for IP right owners in their fight against infringement. Thus, it is necessary that a clear and harmonized application of the new provisions be defined, whether by the government or by the [...]

Legal context and key points

When negotiating international IP agreements, commercial parties often treat the ‘law and jurisdiction’ clause as a relatively minor issue—after all, aren’t most legal systems roughly the same? Focussing on agreements in the biotechnology sector, this article considers some significant differences between the legal systems of key European jurisdictions as they affect the terms of IP-related agreements.

Practical significance

The article uses examples from the UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden to illustrate how national laws can affect (1) the parties’ rights and obligations, (2) the drafting of the agreement, and (3) the interpretation of the [...]

Legal context

Two decisions of the Bombay High Court, India, have established that copyright protection given to films is identical with the pre-1988 position in the UK—indicating that copyright lies in the ‘medium’ rather than in the content of the film. These judgments have correctly interpreted the Indian Copyright Act as it stands. Several critical aspects of a film being unprotected, this position of law has resulted in manifest injustice to producers and film-makers.

Key points

The UK Court of Appeal’s decision in Norowzian v Arks is the first to have regarded films to be protectable not only as films per se, but also as ‘dramatic works’. A similar degree of protection should be accorded to films in India. This can be effected by amending the definition of ‘dramatic works’, which would grant films a dual system of protection. An amendment of the Indian Copyright Act would balance competing considerations of safeguarding copyrighted works and encouraging technological progress.

Practical significance

Reproduction of films has become a ubiquitous phenomenon in India. Animation styles, camera tricks and techniques, and video editing techniques lie unprotected under the present copyright regime. Film-makers are left without a remedy when these segments of their films are copied. Film copyright law in India, founded on stereotyped notions of a producer’s role, ignores several crucial aspects of a film and is in urgent need of [...]