A series of hearings in the battle between RIM and Visto over the patents underpinning the Blackberry device has resulted in what appears to be a win for RIM. The full judgment is available on BAILII but Mr Justice Floyd is reported to have taken the view that Visto’s patent was not valid. However, questions…
Vince Cunningham is a leading expert on trade with China. He highlights some of the things you need to know about China and astonishing expansion of the Chinese economy and influence….
The Danish case concerns Infopaq International, a media monitoring and analysis company. It has pretty obvious implications for the whole of the EU, even if the answers to some of the referred questions seem clear in advance of an ECJ ruling. The Højesteret may have decided to get its money’s worth. It has decided to…
Microsoft Although the main reporting of the massive ‘fine’ imposed by the EU Commission has been relatively sensational, the truth is that this was to a large extent the realisation of a calculation. It is not in fact a ‘fine’ in the strictest sense – or in EU parlance. It may be thought to have…
New NCC research claims that software rights-holders are shifting the legal burden onto consumers who buy computer programmes, leaving them, say the NCC, with less protection than when they buy a cheap biro. The OFT has been asked to examine the potentially unfair contract terms of 17 firms that NCC has identified in Whose licence is…
Laurence Eastham reviews the blogs that might help you keep informed, sharpen up your opinions or just help fill the slack working days which so many IT lawyers complain about….
Computer games based on films are nothing new. However, a new movement has given an interesting twist to this process. Machinima is a burgeoning new film form where films are made using 3D real-time technology. To quote the machinima Academy of Arts and Sciences,[1] machinima is: ‘the convergence of filmmaking, animation and game development….
In December 2007, the Data Sharing Review Secretariat sought responses to a range of questions on the steps that might be taken to improve the workings of the Data Protection Act 1998 with a particular focus on data sharing. SCL’s Privacy and Data Protection Interest Group has worked on a meaningful response, with Andrew Sharpe…
UK-IPO issued a new Practice Note on 7 February, taking account of the judgment in Astron Clinica & Ors v The Comptroller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks [2008] EWHC 85 (Pat). The UK-IPO press release states: In a judgment in November 2006 in the cases of Aerotel Ltd v Telco Holdings Ltd (and…
Read More… from UK-IPO Change of Practice on Computer Programs
Legal Background Section 1(2) of the UK Patents Act 1977, made to correspond to Article 52(2) and (3) of the European Patent Convention (EPC),[1] excludes computer programs from being considered as being patentable inventions, but only to the extent that the patent relates to a computer program ‘as such’. This provision, and in particular how…
Read More… from Astron Clinica: Computer Program Product Claims in UK Patents