News
All the latest news and views.
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FT - Europe's leading patent law firms 2020
June 2020
HGF has been ranked in Gold “very frequently recommended” for Chemistry & Pharmaceuticals Electrical Engineering Silver for “ frequently recommended” for Mechanical Engineering Biotechnology & Food And Bronze “recommended” for Materials & Nanotechnology
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Compulsory licences: the key to accessing inventions in the face of coronavirus?
May 2020
The current coronavirus pandemic provides a unique opportunity for the life sciences sector to invent, and to do so on an international scale. The race is on to develop a vaccine, effective therapies, and accurate tests for the virus required by every country in the world, but such innovations typically take years to discover and refine. The only way to move quicker in such research is to collaborate and cooperate to provide resources and expertise as needed, but this provides significant challenges for intellectual property (IP).
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CIPA Journal: The UK says goodbye, Germany decides, the UPC says… ?
May 2020
As widely reported, CIPA was informed on 27 February that the government will no longer seek to participate in the Unitary Patent (‘UP’) or Unified Patent Court (‘UPC’) system. Despite the UK government having ratified the UPC Agreement back in April 2018 for many such a decision to pull back is not entirely unexpected given the inevitable jurisdiction of the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’) over states participating in the new system.
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MIP IP Stars 2020
May 2020
Managing Intellectual Property IP Stars 2020, comprising the highly recommended IP professionals, has now been published. HGF is delighted to have 13 attorneys listed.
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How can you mediate without meeting?
May 2020
Litigation is inevitable in the current economic climate. However, the perception is that settlement might be more difficult to achieve without face to face meetings or access to ADR. Mediation is one way that disputes can still be settled even if the traditional style mediation in the same location is not possible.
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G3/19: An end to the saga…
May 2020
On 14th May the Enlarged Board of Appeal issued its opinion on the questions referred in case G3/19, otherwise known as the ‘Pepper’ case[1]. HGF have been following the case with interest, and attended the original Board of Appeal hearing which lead to the referral.
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HGF Deadlines and Docketing – 2nd June 2020 update
May 2020
Please contact us to check the deadline of any specific time limit you may need to extend as different rules are applied in each jurisdiction and it is possible there are some legal exceptions. See here for updates based on the situation on Monday 11 May 2020.
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Opposition case studies
May 2020
With an increasing number of European patents being granted year on year, freedom to operate for third parties has never been so important. When a patent application is filed at the European Patent Office (EPO), upon grant it becomes a bundle of national patents and subject to national patent laws. For third parties looking to clear the way, this can prove very complicated.
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The Wild East? Protecting trade marks in China
May 2020
Although China is becoming an increasingly important consumer market, it still has the reputation of being a cheap (counterfeit) production country, with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) being the motor of the Chinese economy.
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Patenting Computer-Implemented Healthcare Inventions in AI and Machine Learning
April 2020
With recent advances in computer technology, AI and ML are increasingly being used in products and services for the healthcare industry. Statistics from the World Intellectual Property Organisation also show increasing numbers of AI related patent applications being filed in the Life and Medical Sciences sector. It is, therefore, important to understand what types of invention can be protected in this area and why.
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