Recent cases ...

A few new cases have popped up on that phenomenally useful service Bailii recently and deserve a brief mention pending mature consideration and commentary:

Cephalon Inc & Ors v Orchid Europe Ltd & Ors [2011] EWHC 1591 (Pat) (24 June 2011) is a judgment of Floyd J on patent infringement and (inevitably) validity. The challenges to the patents were based on lack of inventive step and insufficiency, and the judge held the claimant's three patents invalid. To make it worse for them (or perhaps it makes it a bit better?) the patents, had they been valid, would not have been infringed anyway.

Atrium Medical Corp & Anor v DSB Invest Holding SA [2011] EWHC 74 (Pat) (21 January 2011) has just appeared - an interesting case on the construction of a technology transfer agreement which I covered in my monthly podcast when it was news.

Then there are three Patents County Court cases:

• Temple Island Collection Ltd v New English Teas Ltd & Anor [2011] EWPCC 19 (22/06/2011) which is a copyright case. At the case management conference HHJ Birss was asked to allow amendments to the claim. He refused, saying that the amendment "does not satisfy a cost-benefit analysis." 
• Lenric C21 Ltd v Tesco Stores Ltd [2011] EWPCC 16 is a UKUDR case involving secondary infringement. The case was settled before trial, though not long before - so costs were important. The judge gave the defendant 70 per cent of its costs.
• Wuxi Suntech Power Company Ltd v Tittmann Solar GmbH [2011] EWPCC 17 is a trade mark infringement case. Judgment had been given in default and this was an application to set it aside. The defence amounted to saying that the bill of lading which showed that the infringing goods were being consigned to the defendant had been forged, which the judge was not prepared readily to believe - while noting that this was not what he had to do at this stage anyway. He set the judgment aside and gave the defendants leave to defend, while also making an order for security for costs against them. There's a more detailed note on Jane Lambert's NIPC blog here.

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