French govt complained to EPO over EUIPO election conduct
French finance minister Bruno Le Maire wrote to António Campinos, president of the EPO, to complain over the timing of an event that will be held in Lisbon one week before the EUIPO leadership vote, Managing revealed this week.
Le Maire, minister for the economy and finance since 2017, suggested the event could be seen as interfering with the process to select a new EUIPO executive director.
Managing IP can also reveal that the incumbent executive director, Christian Archambeau, hinted at interference “from Munich” in the decision to remove him last November.
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Med-El loses UK appeal in Advanced Bionics fight
Hearing implant maker Med-El lost an appeal in its patent fight with Advanced Bionics at the England and Wales Court of Appeal on Wednesday, May 24.
Lady Justice Kathryn Thirlwall, who handed down the judgment, also had sharp words for Med-El’s representatives over a reference to a deputy High Court judge’s background as a solicitor.
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Other articles published by Managing IP this week include:
Three takeaways from Intel’s PTAB win
Amgen v Sanofi won’t upend in-house IP strategies: counsel
Weekly take: A&O and Shearman’s billion-dollar baby could be trendsetter
INTA chief: transparency will guide my EUIPO campaign
Counsel: Federal Circuit right to clarify attorney fee challenge
AI, thriftiness, and law firm culture: takeaways from INTA 2023
Elsewhere in IP
Apple blow
The Supreme Court should reject an appeal from Apple and Broadcom against the companies’ $1.1 billion patent infringement defeat to the California Institute of Technology (CalTech), the US government said on Wednesday, May 24.
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled last year that Apple and Broadcom couldn’t ask the courts to invalidate CalTech’s patents because they hadn’t previously raised invalidity arguments at the USPTO.
Cheesed off
‘Emmentaler’ can’t be registered as an EU trademark (EUTM) for cheese, the EU General Court ruled on Wednesday, May 24. The court upheld an EUIPO examiner finding and a board of appeal decision that the mark was descriptive. The EUTM was filed by the trade consortium Emmentaler Switzerland.
CMS woes
The Unified Patent Court (UPC) has partially restricted the use of the case management system (CMS) before the court’s June 1 opening. On Tuesday, May 23, the court halted the use of public application programming interfaces (APIs). The system has been under pressure due to a high volume of opt-out requests in recent weeks.
Paper opt-outs
Sticking with the UPC, the court confirmed on Wednesday, May 24, that it will accept paper-based opt-outs, but only if the CMS is down. Alexander Ramsay, the UPC registrar, was responding to concerns raised by the Institute of Professional Representatives before the European Patent Office.
Patent partnership
Meanwhile, French patent litigation firms Gide Loyrette Nouel and Regimbeau have partnered to provide joint services at the UPC, it was announced yesterday, May 25. The two firms will remain separate.
PTAB latest
The PTAB invalidated three claims in a Centripetal Networks patent that was previously part of a $2.7 billion damages award against Cisco on Tuesday, May 23.
Palo Alto Networks, Cisco, and Keysight Technologies had petitioned to cancel the claims, which cover network threat detection for encrypted communications.
