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European patent EP 1 313 508 B1 claims the use of pemetrexed disodium in the manufacture of a medicament for use in a combination therapy together with vitamin B12 for inhibiting tumour growth. In the last six years, several courts throughout Europe have dealt with the question of whether medicaments containing a different salt or the free acid of pemetrexed infringe this patent by equivalent means. Most of the lower courts denied an infringement. However, the supreme courts went in a different direction: the UK Supreme Court (case no. [2017] UKSC 48, judgment of July 12 2017) and the Swiss Federal Supreme Court (case no. 4A_208/2017, judgment of October 20 2017) found infringement under the doctrine of equivalence. The decision of the German Federal Supreme Court (case no. X ZR 29/15, judgment of June 14 2016) was only concerned with one aspect of the doctrine. However, in light of this decision, the German Higher Regional Court of Munich confirmed infringement by equivalent means in its judgment of May 18 2017 (case no. 6 U 3039/16).

Simon Portman of Marks & Clerk analyses issues that crop up for academic researchers commercialising medical technology innovation in the UK, one of the biggest of which is simply underestimating the value of their ideas

IBM’s Manny Schecter believes public awareness of intellectual property has increased but there has not been a corresponding increase in understanding

Managing IP is delighted to announce the launch of its Rising Stars publication

Nigeria uses the International Classification of Goods and Services for its trade mark registration system. However, there was a time when it used the old British Classification system, a system that consisted of 50 classes (all for goods). Although the Nigerian Trade Marks Act 1990 does make provision for the reclassification of old registrations, there are still many trade marks on the register that were classified under the old system. So is there any disadvantage to having a registration that was classified under the old classification system?

Despite the seemingly unlimited choice of words and the vast imagination of people, collision between similar words, real or coined, is not infrequent. In normal life these words are homonyms or homophones and do not pose any problems in everyday activities. It is a different story in the world of intellectual property. Same or similar words may mean different things but in the eyes of the consumer they are the same and for businesses they may mean loss.

In the global market made accessible by the internet, a recurring question for trade mark proprietors is how to assess online trade mark infringement given the worldwide accessibility of any website. This was considered recently by Arnold J at the High Court of England and Wales in Easygroup Ltd v Easy Fly Express Ltd & Anor ([2018] EWHC 3155 (Ch) (21 November 2018)).

With the expanding popularity of social media, the use of the hashtag symbol (#) – a social media tool placed in front of a word or phrase to create a metadata tag to indicate what a message is about – in conjunction with trade marks has become increasingly common. The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) recently addressed the issue of what role the inclusion of the hashtag plays in differentiating similar marks in the precedential opinion issued in In re i.am.symbolic, llc.

In-house counsel say the EPO Technical Board of Appeal’s conclusion that plants made from essentially biological processes are patentable could usher in another decade of protection uncertainty in the industry