NIPC Law

  Jane Lambert Patents Court (Ms Pat Treacy) Insulet Corporation v Roche Diabetes Care Ltd [2021] EWHC 1907 (Pat) (9 July 2021) This was a patent infringement claim with a patent revocation counterclaim. The patent in suit was EP (UK) 1 335 764  for a device and system for patient infusion.  The action and counterclaim came on before Ms Pat Treacy sitting as a judge of the High Court between 11 and 13 May 2021. She delivered judgment on 9 July 2021 (see Insulet Corporation v Roche Diabetes Care Ltd [2021] EWHC 1907). At para [452] of her judgment, she found that claim 2 of the patent had been anticipated by the PCT application known as "PhiScience".  At [525] she concluded that all claims other than claim 3 had been obvious over PhiScience but not over another PCT application known as "MiniMed."   At para [587] she held that all the claims in issue were invalid by reason of added matter.  Finally, she found that none of the claims in issue had been i...

In  HTC Europe Co Ltd v Apple Inc [2013] EWCA Civ 451 (3 May 2013), the Court of Appeal (Lord Justices Richards, Lewison and Kitchin) ventured again into what Lord Justice Lewison described at paragraph [140] of the Court's judgment as "the minefield of the exclusion from patentability of computer programs 'as such'". The Appeal This was an appeal from the judgment of Mr Justice Floyd (as he then was) in  HTC Europe Co Ltd v Apple Inc [2012] EWHC 1789 (Pat) (4 July 2012). The judge found that two of the claims of one of Apple's patents were invalid because they related to computer programs as such and one of those claims was also invalid for obviousness. He also found that all the claims of another patent were invalid either for want of novelty or obviousness.  The first of those patents, European patent number 2,098.948 , related to computer devices with touch sensitive screens that are capable of responding to more than one touch at a time. The second, E...