IP Law Watch

Legal issues, law and regulations concerning the world of IP.

 

1
AUD50,000+ Reasons for Employees to Think Twice About Their Employer’s Copyright Works and Confidential Information
2
Business Method Patents in Australia: Mere Computer Implementation Not Enough
3
First Case of Suspected Copyright Infringement on Discussion Forum Detected by Hong Kong Customs Using New Monitoring System
4
UK Trade Mark Owners win Landmark Case Against ISPs
5
Next Steps in the Dance: Amgen Files Citizen Petition at FDA Requesting Mandatory Compliance with BPCIA Patent Procedures
6
High Court Confirms That Extension of Time Provisions Apply to Requests for Pharmaceutical Extensions of Term
7
Left without a Partner: Amgen Sues Sandoz for Refusing to Dance in Accordance with BPCIA Patent Procedures
8
Downloaded Dallas Buyers Club? The Bill is in the Mail
9
DATA, DATABASE, METADATA, BIG DATA, PERSONAL DATA, DATA MINING…..
10
Parody Comes to the United Kingdom

AUD50,000+ Reasons for Employees to Think Twice About Their Employer’s Copyright Works and Confidential Information

Employees often like to take a little with them when leaving employment, some might say as a ‘memento’, others might say as outright theft of the intellectual property of their employer.  In a recent decision, an ex employee was ordered to pay his former employer AUD50,000 in damages for copying over 60GB of data prior to leaving his job to work for a competitor.

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Business Method Patents in Australia: Mere Computer Implementation Not Enough

Research Affiliates LLC v Commissioner of Patents [2014] FCAFC 150

On 10 November 2014, the Australian Full Federal Court (Court) held that a method of creating an index of securities using a standard computer was a ‘scheme’, and, hence, not a patentable invention.

The Court applied the Australian High Court test from National Research Development Corporation v Commissioner of Patents (1959) 102 CLR 252 that a patentable invention must produce an “artificially created state of affairs”. The Court said that this test is not satisfied by mechanistic application of artificiality or physical effect, but by understanding the claimed invention as a matter of substance not form. Read More

First Case of Suspected Copyright Infringement on Discussion Forum Detected by Hong Kong Customs Using New Monitoring System

A man was arrested by Hong Kong Customs (Customs) for uploading a large amount of suspected infringing copyright works to the internet for financial gain. The automatic monitoring system, called Lineament Monitoring System 1 Plus (LMS1+), searches discussion forums, captures evidence related to selected messages and performs automatic downloads for further analysis. LMS1+ alerts Customs officers of suspected cases to conduct a more thorough investigation. Read More

UK Trade Mark Owners win Landmark Case Against ISPs

ISPs Ordered to Block Websites Selling Counterfeit Products

In a landmark decision, a judge of the High Court of Justice, England and Wales has ruled that internet service providers (ISPs) in the United Kingdom may be ordered to take all reasonable steps to prevent or restrict access to websites selling counterfeit goods.

The case was brought by luxury brand owner Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA (Richemont), which relevantly owns the Cartier and Montblanc brands and associated trade marks, against the five largest ISPs in the United Kingdom.

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Next Steps in the Dance: Amgen Files Citizen Petition at FDA Requesting Mandatory Compliance with BPCIA Patent Procedures

Amgen, Inc. has brought the discussion of the procedure for biosimilar applications from the courts to the FDA by filing a Citizen Petition (Docket No. FDA 2014 P 1771) on October 29, 2014, requesting that the FDA mandate compliance with the framework for biosimilar applications laid out by the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act.

To read the full alert, click here.

High Court Confirms That Extension of Time Provisions Apply to Requests for Pharmaceutical Extensions of Term

In a recent decision, the High Court of Australia has ruled that the extension of time provisions of the Australian Patents Act 1990 (Act) can be used to extend the time for requesting an extension of term of a patent relating to a pharmaceutical substance.

The dispute was based on a request by Lundbeck to extend the term of Australian patent 623144.  The extension of term request was filed after the applicable deadline and was, therefore, accompanied by an application for an extension of time.  Read More

Left without a Partner: Amgen Sues Sandoz for Refusing to Dance in Accordance with BPCIA Patent Procedures

There has been a lot of curiosity within the biologics industry regarding how the “patent dance” procedures of the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act (“BPCIA”) would operate. This interest was piqued in July 2014 when Sandoz Inc.’s (“Sandoz”) biosimilar application for a biosimilar of Amgen Inc.’s (“Amgen”) Neupogen® was the first accepted by FDA under section 351(k) of the Public Health Service Act. Apparently, Sandoz has refused to engage in the “patent dance” in accordance with the BPCIA, leaving Amgen without a dance partner. Amgen did not take kindly to being stranded on the dance floor and has opted to sue Sandoz for its allegedly unlawful refusal to follow the BPCIA’s patent resolution procedures.

To read the full alert, please click here.

Downloaded Dallas Buyers Club? The Bill is in the Mail

The film Dallas Buyers Club won critical acclaim and earned Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto Academy Awards for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor respectively. Now the rights holder of the film, Dallas Buyers Club LLC, is looking to pursue Australians who it believes have illegally downloaded the film.

The company has issued proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia against iiNet Limited and four other internet service providers, seeking orders to have them disclose the identities of the alleged pirates. iiNet has indicated that it will defend the action. Read More

Parody Comes to the United Kingdom

The United States has given us the Scary Movie films, Meet the Spartans and Date Movie. Why has the United Kingdom not produced anything similar? Maybe it is because they were not the greatest of films, but more likely it is because, up until 1 October 2014, the United Kingdom did not have a parody exception to copyright infringement. The Copyright and Rights in Performances (Quotation and Parody) Regulations 2014 have come into force and state that “Fair dealing with a work for the purposes of caricature, parody or pastiche does not infringe copyright in the work”. Read More

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