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What do I need to take into account before I make the move?

Michael Carter, Nick Smee, Luke Kempton and Nick Cunningham analyse the implications of the Unitary Patent proposals for non-contentious matters, and recommend steps that patent owners and licensees should take now

In a recent decision, T 773/10 of October 24 2014 (published on January 7 2015), a Technical Board of Appeal of the EPO has decided that a new therapeutic use of a known medical device cannot confer novelty within the meaning of the European Patent Convention.

After the National People's Congress Standing Committee announced its decision to establish IP specialised courts, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai have opened their IP courts on November 6, December 16 and December 28 2014 respectively.

Interim measures and preliminary injunctions are frequently used in Belgian and European (cross-border) patent litigation conflicts. Belgian courts can generally order such measures upon a prima facie assessment of the validity of the claimant's IP rights, which includes neither a full legal analysis nor a substantial technical examination.

The Uniform Domain Name Resolution Policy (UDRP) provides a very useful tool in trade mark enforcement, as it allows a brand owner to seek to compel the transfer of a domain name which was registered by a third party and is identical or confusingly similar to a trade mark in which the owner has rights. To compel the transfer of a domain name, a brand owner must satisfy a three-prong test. The World Intellectual Property Organization recently issued a decision in a UDRP proceeding in which the Administrative Panel provided a unique interpretation of the third prong of the test.

The Patent Law Modernisation Act (Patentrechtsmodernisierungsgesetz) introduced a legal basis for rejecting late-filed submissions during German nullity proceedings by the revised Section 83 paragraph 4 (§ 83 Abs 4) of the German Patent Act (Patentgesetz). A late-filed submission may be rejected if its consideration results in the adjournment of an already scheduled oral hearing. However, the party filing the late submission may overcome an impending rejection if an adequate reasoning can be provided for the lateness of the submission.

Trade mark registrations used to be granted based on a request by the applicant to obtain protection for certain products or services that were initially classified according to a national classification. Eventually Mexico adhered to the Nice Agreement whereby the international classification system was adopted.

2014 was a mixed year for design decisions from the Court of Justice and General Court in Luxembourg. David Stone explains how, while the Court of Justice may have scored highly with two decisions, the General Court has some way to go in its interpretation of the EU-wide legislation

It was a good idea to buy indulgence for sins committed in the Middle Ages. As time went on, humankind dropped the idea of buying expiation for money. However the idea survived through the ages and found a new expression in the market economy. The idea lacks inventive level or novelty but some people all the same are lured into believing that there may be something in it. It is like a Ponzi scheme: people plunge into the adventure, come out befooled, some time passes and other people believe they will have a better luck.