NIPC Law

Author Abhishekptlbbk Licence CC BY-SA 4.0 Source Wikimedia Commons Jane Lambert Court of Appeal ( Lord Justice Nugee, Lady Justice Elizabeth Laing and Lord Justice Birss) J C Bamford Excavators Ltd v Manitou UK Ltd and Another [ 2024] EWCA Civ 276 (22 March 2024) In  JC Bamford Excavators Ltd v Manitou UK Ltd and another [2022] EWHC 1724 (Pat) (04 July 2022), JC Bamford Excavators Ltd  ("JCB") sued Manitou UK Ltd and Manitou BF SA ("Manitou") for patent infringement.  Manitou counterclaimed for revocation of JCB's patents. Manitou.  The action and counterclaim came on before His Honour Judge Hacon who held that one of JCB's patents was valid and infringed but revoked the rest. I discussed His Honour's judgment in  Patents - J C Bamford Excavators Ltd v Manitou UK Ltd   on 7 March 2023. The Appeal JCB appealed against the revocation of European patent 2 263 965 B9 for a Method of Operating a Working Machine (“EP 965”) with Judge Hacon's permissi...

It is some years since I last discussed software patents ( "Software Patents: January Patents Ltd.'s Application" , 16 Jan 2009, "Software Patents: New Guidance from the IPO" , 29 Dec 2008 and "Patents: Software Protection after Symbian and Bilski " 11 Nov 2008) and Judge Birss QC's decision in Re Halliburton Energy Services Inc [2011] EWHC 2508 (Pat) (5 Oct 2011) and Mr. Justice Floyd's in Re Protecting Kids the World Over (PKTWO) Ltd [2011] EWHC 2720 (Pat) (26 Oct 2011) justify a return to the topic. The Statutory Exclusion Most people in intellectual property and many in information technology know that a rt 52 (2) of the European Patent Convention and s.1 (2) of the Patents Act 1977 exclude from patentability: (a) discoveries, scientific theories and mathematical methods; (b) aesthetic creations; (c) schemes, rules and methods for performing mental acts, playing games or doing business, and programs for computers; ...