Hogan Lovells’ U.S. + German Patent Update reports on recent patent news and cases from Germany and the United States.
The January 2019 Update is available in the following languages: English 日本語(Japanese language) 한국어 (Korean language) The January 2019 spotlight article covers a recent Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) decision in Germany concerning ex parte preliminary injunctions. In this case, the first instance / appeal courts had issued preliminary injunctions against the respondents, but the FCC reversed this. The FCC found that issuance of the preliminary injunctions violated respondents’ rights to be treated equally, and that a defendant must be given an opportunity to be heard in some form prior to issuance of a preliminary injunction. The January 2019 update also covers these developments in the U.S. and Germany: United States IPR Not Instituted Because Petitioner Used Another’s Earlier-Decided IPR as “Road Map” – United Fire Protection Corp. v. Engineered Corrosion Solutions, LLC (15 November 2018) Federal Circuit Says Demand Letter from Patent Owner Provides Personal Jurisdiction for Declaratory Judgment – Jack Henry & Assocs. v. Plano Encryption Techs. LLC (7 December 2018) USPTO Announces Revised Guidance on Determining Subject Matter Eligibility (4 January 2019) Federal Circuit Further Defines Contours of Standing to Appeal PTAB Decisions Germany No Inventive Step When Patented Teaching Accepts Disadvantages in Prior Art – “Belt Tensioner” (“Gurtstraffer”), Federal Supreme Court X ZR 50/16 Regional Court of Munich on International Jurisdiction and Statute of Limitations Regarding Vindication Claims For a European Patent Application – Regional Court of Munich, 21 O 11279/17 Only Two Months Left for German Federal Constitutional Court to Decide on German UPCA Complaint before Brexit For more information, please click on a link with the detailed update (in English ,日本語, and 한국어), or contact partners Joseph Raffetto or Steffen Steininger. Authored by Frederick Ch'en, Joe Raffetto, Steffen Steininger, Corey Leggett, Katharina Berghofer, Daniel Kaneko, Tobias Kempter and Mitsuhiro Yoshimura
