The Court of Appeal has handed down its decision in Dr Reddy's Laboratories (UK) Ltd v Eli Lilly & Co Ltd. The Court dismissed Dr Reddy's appeal against the decision of Mr Justice Floyd that Eli Lilly's patent for the anti-psychotic olanzapine was both novel and inventive.

Mewburn Ellis LLP are pleased to announce the launch of our new IP newsletter.  The MewsNews email bulletins will keep you updated on recent news in IP law and practice, while the MewsNews Review will provide an overview of the year's developments.  Our 2009 review is now available here. We hope you will enjoy reading MewsNews.

In the Pre-budget report issued on 9 December 2009, the UK Chancellor announced plans for a reduced rate of corporation tax on income from patents. Such an initiative would make the licensing of patents more attractive for UK companies.

On Friday 4 December, EU industry ministers agreed in principle to certain aspects of an EU patent system, taking us a small step closer to an EU-wide Community patent. An EU patent system aims to increase the efficiency of the patent process in Europe and should significantly reduce patent costs for businesses.

Mewburn Ellis Partners Robert Watson and Stephen Carter will be attending the FICPI China Symposium in Shenzhen.  Robert will also be giving a talk on Community Designs on Monday 16 November.  For more details of the event click here.

Mewburn Ellis LLP was placed in the prestigious top tier of London patent firms in the recently published 2009 Edition of the Legal 500 (Legalease Ltd, London). According to the Legal 500, Mewburn Ellis LLP is one of the top eight London-based patent firms in the UK. For more information about the Legal 500 survey click here.

The partners of Mewburn Ellis are delighted to welcome Stephen Hodsdon back to the firm.  Stephen trained and qualified as a Patent Attorney with Mewburn Ellis before being called as a barrister and leaving to complete a year’s pupillage at a leading set of IP chambers in London where he gained substantial experience in all aspects of IP litigation.   Stephen is based in our Cambridge Office and can be contacted at stephen.hodsdon@mewburn.com or on 01223 420383

Kelly & Chiu v. GE Healthcare is the first reported case of a successful award of compensation to employee inventors by the UK courts.   Under UK law, inventions made by employees during the course of their employment generally belong to their employers.  However, under UK law it is possible for employee inventors to obtain compensation from their employers, provided they can show that a granted patent for their invention (and/or the invention itself, for patent applications filed on or after 1 January 2005) has been of “outstanding benefit” to their employer.

The Community Design Regulations, which came into force in 2002, set out the protection that is available in the European Union for unregistered and registered designs.  Here we bring you an update on the interpretation of the Regulations from two national courts within the EU, relating to two important (but distinct) issues.

At present, there are seven cases pending before the Enlarged Board of Appeal.  Oral Proceedings for three of the currently pending Enlarged Board of Appeal cases at the EPO are scheduled to take place in November 2009. The Board will be considering the allowability of 'second medical use' claims for novel dosage regimes, the exclusion from patentability of surgical methods, and the language of proceedings for Euro-PCT applications. 

The full article contains a review of all of the currently pending Enlarged Board referrals.

Mewburn Ellis partner Hilary King will be attending the ERBI Bench2Boardroom networking exhibition for Biotech and Medtech on 21 October in Cambridge; she hopes to catch up with any clients and friends attending.  Do let Hilary know if you plan to be there at Hilary.king@mewburn.com.

Mewburn Ellis partner, Stephen Gill will be attending the HIPLA (Houston Intellectual Property Law Association) 25th Annual Institute on Intellectual Property from 1 -3 October 2009, in Galverston, Texas, USA. Stephen will be presenting an update on European patent practice. Any clients and friends wishing to catch up with Stephen can contact him beforehand at stephen.gill@mewburn.com  For more details on the event click here

The EPO has recently announced a number of new rules. As well as rules placing major restrictions on the filing of divisional applications, about which the EPO has recently issued further information (as explained in more detail here), the new rules place formal restrictions on the number of independent claims which will be searched. They also make it compulsory to address objections raised during an EPO search at an earlier stage, and reduce the opportunities for voluntary amendments (click here for more details). These new rules are due to enter into force on 1 April 2010 and will affect both direct European and Euro-PCT applications. 

We are very pleased to announce that Julie Carlisle,  Emily Hayes, Tanis Keirstead and James Leach have recently passed their examinations and are now qualified European Patent Attorneys. All four passed the qualifying examination at the first attempt.  This brings the total number of European Patent Attorneys in the firm to 41.

Robert Watson will be attending the FICPI World Congress in Washington DC from Saturday 6 June until Thursday 11 June.  He will be moderating one of the Congress sessions, which will look at Design Protection, as well as taking up his role as Reporter of the Designs Study Group.  Robert would be happy to meet up with colleagues and friends whilst there and can be contacted on robert.watson@mewburn.com

Partner Nick Sutcliffe will be speaking on “Assessing the Patentability Issues around Antibodies” at this forum and would be delighted to catch up with any friends or clients attending. Please do contact him if you plan to be there at nick.sutcliffe@mewburn.com

Partner Richard Johnson will attending the AIPLA Spring Meeting in San Diego, California from 13-15 May and hopes to catch up with any clients and friends that are attending. Do let Richard know if you plan to be there.

Partners Simon Kremer and Richard Clegg will be attending the BIO International Convention in Atlanta, Georgia from 18-21 May.  Please let Simon and Richard know if you plan to be there and would like to meet up.

Mewburn Ellis partner, Nick Sutcliffe will be attending the one-day event on Biosimilars and analytical challenges at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, London.  He will give an intellectual property overview for biosimilars.  Any clients and friends wishing to catch up with Nick can contact him beforehand at nick.sutcliffe@mewburn.com

The partners of Mewburn Ellis LLP are happy to announce that Kerry Moroney joins the partnership from 1 April 2009.

On 25 February 2009, the House of Lords delivered its decision in Generics (UK) v H Lundbeck A/S, dismissing the appeal and upholding the Court of Appeal’s decision that Lundbeck’s claim to a single enantiomer of racemic citalopram is sufficient.  The House of Lords clarified the relationship between technical contribution to the art and inventive concept in the context of sufficiency, and re-affirmed the view from the Court of Appeal on the interpretation of so-called “Biogen insufficiency”.

New rules are coming into force at the EPO that will change the fees payable in respect of European patent applications filed from 1 April 2009, and international (PCT) patent applications entering the European regional phase from 1 April 2009, including the introduction of a new page fee and a flat-rate designation fee.  

We are pleased to announce, however, that we are not increasing our US$ and Euro fixed fees for PCT applications entering the regional phase at the EPO and are abolishing our separate designation fee service charge  to simplify our charges for direct filed European patent applications.  And despite the EPO levying an additional fee for each page of an application over 35, we will not make any additional service charge for applications with up to 100 pages.

We are pleased to announce that our popular Summer Course on the European Patent will run again this year from 1 to 12 June 2009. Our two-week course provides an in-depth study of the legal and practical aspects of working with the EPC and EPO, with optional additional seminars on other aspects of Intellectual Property.