Patents: US Supreme Court permits Licensees to challenge Licensors' Patents

Although the doctrine has been queried recently on the ground of incompatibility with EC and national competition law, it has been settled since Crossley v Dixon 10 HLC 293 that a licensee cannot impeach the title of his of her licensor. That rule has been swept away in the USA by the US Supreme Court's judgment in Medimmune Inc v Genetech Inc. (9 Jan 2007). Toni Tease of Billings, Montana, who runs a very similar practice to ours and is tantamount to a fifth member of chambers, has written a very interesting case note on that decision in her monthly newsletter "Intellections".

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