Newsletter June 2022
PATENT LAW
The Danish Maritime and Commercial High Court dismisses Novartis’ claims for a preliminary injunction based on a patent application in a highly principled matter
In a highly principled matter, the Danish Maritime and Commercial High Court has decided to dismiss Novartis’ claim for a preliminary injunction against Glenmark, Zentiva, and Viatris based on a patent application under examination by the EPO Examining Division.
The Court concluded that the PI could not be issued, as there was no legal interest due to the patent not yet being granted by the EPO.
Furthermore, the Court also found that there was uncertainty as to when the patent would be granted for the reasons presented by the defendants. Lastly, the Court agreed that there was a risk that the wording of the granted patent would be different from the patent application, which further supported not granting a PI based on the patent application.
Glenmark and Zentiva were represented by BUGGE VALENTIN.
More about the case here.
New WIPO-standard for bio sequences in patent applications
WIPO has issued a new standard, “WIPO ST.26”, for bio sequences in patent applications. ST.26 enters into force on the 1st of July 2022.
The purpose of the ST.26 is to allow the applicant to prepare a single sequence listing which is acceptable to all receiving Offices. ST.26 is also intended to provide more accurate presenta-tions of bio sequences, to ease searches in sequence data and to allow the upload of sequence data to electronic databases.
The standard has a number of new requirements regarding, inter alia, filing format and the presentation of bio sequence listings in patent applications.
WIPO’s FAQ regarding the new standard is available here.
Preliminary injunction granted against Sony and Huawei
In two cases brought by the Danish company Sonion, the Danish Maritime andCommercial High Court has granted a preliminary injunction against Sony and Huawei.
The court found that Sony and Huawei’s headphones contained technology protected by Sonion’s patent and utility model rights.
The cases establish that a preliminary injunction can be granted on the basis of dependent claims. In the cases, the court assessed the basis of the dependent claims and did not find that the dependent claims were based on unallowable intermediate generalizations. Furthermore, the court assessed inventive requirements for utility model rights and found that the rights of the present case had the necessary degree of inventive step.
Additionally, the cases explore, inter alia, unallowable intermediate generalizations for dependent claims and inventive step requirements in utility models.
The Huawei judgement can be read in full in Danish here.
The Sony judgement can be read in full in Danish here.
WTO adopts partial Covid-19 ”Patent Waiver”
The World Trade Organization has made agreements on a partial patent waiver for Covid-19 vaccines.
The adopted waiver focuses on the use of the existing TRIPS flexibility of compulsory licenses. The waiver allows a WTO member to exploit a patent, which relates to a technique linked to a Covid-19 vaccine, without the consent of the right holder via a compulsory license that will be obtained through an accelerated procedure.
Financial Times has written about the waiver here.
TRADEMARK LAW
Preliminary injunction granted against internet service providers
The Danish Maritime and Commercial High Court has granted a preliminary injunction against a number of internet service providers (ISP). The ISP’s provided access to websites that contains infringements of Skechers’ trademarks and copyrights.
Skechers claim regarding dynamic injunctions was not sustained due to a lack of actuality.
Skechers was represented by BUGGE VALENTIN.
The judgement can be read in Danish here.
DESIGN AND COPYRIGHT LAW
Fake products and online piracy: New trends in young Europeans’ behavior
The results of the 2022 EU-wide survey (IP Youth Scoreboard) on the perceptions of IP among young Europeans (aged 15-24) are out.
The new survey confirmed that 37 % of young people bought one or several fake products intentionally in the last 12 months, a significant increase compared to the previous results.
According to the survey, the counterfeits most commonly bought by young Europeans are clothes and accessories (17 %), followed by footwear (14 %) electronic devices (13 %), and hygiene, cosmetics, personal care and perfumes (12 %).
Intentional use of illegal sources of digital content remains stable, with 21 % of young consumers (one in five) acknowledging they accessed pirated content on purpose in the last 12 months.
However, access from legal sources is gaining ground among the younger generations, and 60 % claimed to have not used, played, downloaded or streamed content from illegal sources in the past year, compared to 50 % in 2019 and 40 % in 2016.
Read the results of the survey here.
MARKETING PRACTICES LAW
Trowel with a red handle did not have distinctive character
In a case before the Maritime- and Commercial High Court a preliminary injunction was denied. The court found that a trowel with a red handle produced by the Danish company Eskimo did not have the sufficient degree of distinctive character to be protected by the Marketing Practices Act § 3 or § 22.
Read the judgement in Danish here.
CIVIL PROCEDURE LAW
Limited appeal does not prevent full review of costs
In a recent decision by the Danish Supreme Court, the defendant was allowed to claim legal costs endured at the Eastern High Court for the part of the High Court’s judgement, which had not been appealed.
The decision determines that parties have a right to try the costs of the appeal as a whole before the appeal court, even if only a part of the case has been appealed.
Read the judgement in Danish here.
New Code of Conduct for the Danish Bar and Law Society
The Danish Bar and Law Society has updated and amended their Code of Conduct.
The new Code of Conduct will enter into force on September 1st, 2022.
In the new set of rules, the prohibitions against client poaching and “no cure, no pay” has been amended, and a new chapter on legal investigations has been added.
The new rules can be found in Danish here.