Patents: BlackBerry Appeal Dismissed
One of Alex Weston's slides in her presentation to Venturefest listed BlackBerry and Viagra as things that had been patented. "But haven't some of those patents been revoked?" I blurted out very rudely. "Yes" she agreed and carried on with her presentation. But the very day that Alex gave her talk the Court of Appeal gave judgment in Research In Motion UK Ltd v Inpro Licensing SARL [2007] EWCA Civ 51 (7 Feb 2007). As Lord Justice Jacob remarked at paragraph [3], i t was not suggested that any important or even novel issue of law was raised by the appeal. The appeal was on obviousness and the law was set out clearly enough by the House of Lords in Biogen v Medeva [1997] RPC 1. The submission was that Mr Justice Pumfrey had misapplied or failed to apply settled principles at first instance. After considering all the prior art relied upon, the Court concluded that he had. The only other point to note is procedural. Mr Justice Pumfrey had expressed ...