The UK Supreme Court has decided that an artificial intelligence machine cannot be considered to be an inventor in British patent law. The case "Thaler v Comptroller-General of Patents Designs and Trade Marks" involved an appeal regarding two patent applications filed by Dr. Stephen Thaler under the UK Patents Act...
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Staying Proceedings at the Unitary Patent Court
Under what conditions can the Unified Patent Court (UPC) stay a decision when opposition proceedings are pending in the European Patent Office (EPO)? That question faced the Central Division (Munich) of the European UPC in Astellas ./. Healios (Case No. UPC_CFI_80/2023). Under Article 33(10) UPCA and Rule 295 sub a...
Was passiert bei dem Tod eines Erfinders?
Für angestellte Erfinder regelt das sogenannte Gesetz über Arbeitnehmererfindungen die Rechte und die Pflichten eines angestellten Erfinders gegenüber seinem Arbeitgeber. Diese Rechte und Pflichten ergeben sich aus dem Wunsch heraus, einen möglichst gerechten Interessensausgleich zwischen dem Arbeitgeber und dem Arbeitenden herzustellen. Der Arbeitende soll dafür belohnt werden, erfinderische Ideen im...
Patenting an Artificial Neural Network in the UK
The UK High Court recently issued a significant judgement on the application for a patent directed to an artificial intelligence network and overturned the UK IPO’s rejection of the patent application. The court disapproved the argument that the recommendation system, controlled by a trained artificial neural network (ANN), was excluded...
Assessing computer-implemented inventions – the British Approach
The UK Patents Act has the same exclusions on patentability as the European Patent Convention, but the case law over the years has diverged slightly in its approach to assessing whether an application is excluded from protection. The main case now referred to is the Aerotel case (Aerotel Ltd v...
Searching and Classifying Quantum Patents
Quantum technologies are a rapidly developing field of science and engineering that exploits the properties of quantum physics to perform tasks that would be impossible or impractical with classical physics. Quantum technologies include quantum simulation, quantum sensing and metrology, quantum computation, and quantum communication. However, quantum technologies also pose significant...
Kein Markenschutz für „Black Friday“
Der BGH hat mit Beschluss vom 29. Juni 2023 die Nichtzulassungsbeschwerde hinsichtlich des Urteils des Kammergerichts vom 14. Oktober 2022 zurückgewiesen, welches die Löschung der deutschen Wortmarke Nr. 3020130575741 für das Zeichen „Black Friday“ bestätigte. Dies hat der Kläger auf seiner Homepage mitgeteilt. Damit findet ein mehrjähriger Rechtsstreit sein Ende....
Irish Referendum to join Unified Patent Court in 2024
Currently, Ireland is not a member of the Unified Patent Court (UPC), although the country is a long-standing member of the European Union. As we have already reported, the UPC is a new court that deals with the infringement and validity of European patents and unitary patents, which are patents...
Protective Letters and Patent Infringement
A protective letter is a legal submission that can be filed by an alleged infringer in a patent infringement case. Its purpose is to provide the court with information about the alleged infringer’s position on the patent in question. The letter can include arguments against infringement of the patent, about the...
Trade Fairs, the European Unified Patent Court and Infringement
Recent decisions in the local divisions of the European Unified Patent Court demonstrate that the UPC system is patent (plaintiff) friendly and is prepared to grant emergency injunctions at short notice to stop alleged infringers from showcasing products on trade fairs. Indeed, the first preliminary injunction issued by the UPC...