NIPC Law

Author Dfrg.msc   Public Domain Source Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert Patents are intended to promote innovation but occasionally they work against the public interest.  For instance, the term of a pharmaceutical patent that is about to expire may effectively be prolonged by a patent for a new dosing regime or a second medical use.  Sometimes the patents for such inventions may be revoked  or a  declaration of non-infringement  may be granted  A company that wants to launch a competing product will often bring revocation or non-infringement proceedings to clear the way for the launch. However, s.69 (2) of the Patents Act 1977 makes clear that such proceedings can be brought only after a patent has been granted.   There is a risk in launching a new product while a patent application is being considered because  s.69 (1).  allows a claim for damages to be backdated to the publication of the application.   That can b...

Saint Barthélemy Author Starus   Licence CC-BY-SA 3.9   Source Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (Mr Recorder Campbell) Easygroup Ltd and others v Easyway SBH and another (Rev1) [2021] EWHC 2007 (IPEC) (22 July 2021) Saint Barthélemy is a small French possession in the West Indes.  Easyway SBH is a company incorporated in the territory which runs a meet and greet service on the island that has included flight booking and arranging car hires.  All its services are performed on Saint Barthélemy but it has a website in English that is used by travel agents and individuals from the UK. The company corresponded with enquirers who approached it through the website.  Stephane-Michel Roche, the company's founder, director owner of 60% of its shares, estimated that between 200 and 250 of Easyway's customers were British and they constituted some 3% of its business. Despite their remoteness from the UK and even though all ...

The Four Courts, Dublin Author Jtdirl Released into public domain by the copyright owner Source Wikipedia Supreme Court of Ireland Jane Lambert Irish Supreme Court (Chief Justice Clarke and Justices O'Donnel Donal, McKechnie, Dunne, O'Malley and Iseult) Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp v Clonmel Healthcare Ltd.   [2019] IESC 65, 31 July 2019 This was an unusual appeal in that the discretion of an applications judge and the decision of a majority of the appellate court were second-guessed after the expiry of the intellectual property right upon which the applicant for an interim injunction had relied.  The Supreme Court of Ireland allowed an appeal against the Irish Court of Appeal's decision in  Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp v Clonmel Healthcare Ltd. [2018] IECA 177 to reject an appeal from Mr Justice Haughton's refusal to restrain Clonmel Healthcare Ltd.  from marketing a product that was alleged to have infringed Merck Sharp & Dohme ...