News on patent law

After many years of preparation, the Unitary Patent Package entered into force on 1 June 2023. Being composed of the European patent with unitary effect and the Unified Patent Court, its introduction can be seen as one of the most significant changes to the European patent system in the recent decades.

Learn more on our website:
https://www.rentschpartner.ch/en/patent-law/unitary-patent-system

In their chapter «Important Aspects of IP for Start-Ups» in the book «Intellectual Property Management for Start-ups» by Martin Bader and Sevim Süzeroğlu-Melchiors, the two patent attorneys Louis Lagler and Christian Ebner from RENTSCH PARTNER discuss common pitfalls based on selected practical examples and case studies.

Available at: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-16993-9_23#Abs1

The Federal Republic of Germany has ratified the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (UPCA) on February 17, 2023. With Germany's ratification, all requirements for the entry into force of the Agreement have now been met.

Accordingly, the new court will open its doors on June 1, 2023. The so-called sunrise period, an important transition period for the new system, will begin on March 1, 2023.
https://www.bmj.de/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilungen/DE/2023/0217_Einheitliches_Patentgericht.html

Learn more on our website:
https://www.rentschpartner.ch/en/patent-law/unitary-patent-system

Good news for patent applicants: At its meeting on 16 November 2022, the Federal Council adopted the dispatch on the partial revision of the Patents Act for submission to Parliament. The Patents Act is to be adapted to international standards and the Swiss patent system is to be made more attractive to SMEs and individual inventors. In the future, an obligatory search is performed for each Swiss Patent Application. Further, applicants will be able to choose whether their application undergoes a complete substantive examination, including novelty and inventive step or only the current limited substantive examination on exclusion from amongst others, patentability, clarity and unity, but not novelty and inventive step.

The RENTSCH PARTNER team will happily answer any question you may have.

Link to the website:
https://www.admin.ch/gov/en/start/documentation/media-releases.msg-id-91566.html

As in the previous year, the London trade magazine “iam Patent 1000” ranks Christian Hilti and Dany Vogel in its 2022 issue as „world’s foremost private practice patent experts” (Global Leaders in Patent Law).

Link to the iam website:
https://www.iam-media.com/survey/iam-global-leaders/2022/article/iam-global-leaders-2022

In the newly published issue 4/21 of the legal journal "Life Science Recht", an article by Alfred Köpf, Christian Ebner and Moritz Hönig on "Challenges and Opportunities in Licensing Biotech-Research Tools".

To read the article, please click here (for non-subscribers there is a charge).

The London-based journal IAM has published an interview with  Andrea Carreira, Christian Hilti and Demian Stauber about patent prosecution in Switzerland. The interview was published in “IAM Global Patent Litigation Guide 2022” and can be downloaded here.

‘This article first appeared in Global Patent Litigation Guide: Helping businesses navigate the new normal 2022, a supplement to IAM, published by Law Business Research - IP Division. To view the guide in full, please go to www.IAM-media.com.

In this interview, patent attorney Axel Remde explains what potential buyers are looking for when it comes to the protection of technical inventions, where the pitfalls in a patent application lie and how to structure the application process to be as efficient as possible.

The full interview can be found under this link.

In the newly published issue 2/21 of the legal journal "Life Science Recht", an article by Alfred Köpf, Christian Ebner and Axel Remde on "Medical Devices and the Exclusion from Patentability".

To read the article, please click here (for non-subscribers there is a charge).

The 4th edition of the textbook on Swiss and European patent law and patent litigation has been published. Christian Hilti, Alfred Köpf, Demian Stauber and Andrea Carreira have updated the book.

On 1 January 2012, the Swiss Federal Patent Court took up its work. Since then, Swiss patent case law has reached a level that can compete with the most important European patent jurisdictions. The aim of the new edition is primarily to present the case law and working methods of the Federal Patent Court. In addition, topics such as patent strategy, possibilities and limits of patentability of biological and computer-implemented inventions, the rights of clients, purchasers and public research institutes have been updated. New topics, such as the institute of the patent box, additional protection possibilities for paediatric medicines, are also addressed to provide an introduction to the subject matter.

Andrea Carreira of Rentsch Partner is named "Top 250 Women in IP 2020" by the international magazine "Managing Intellectual Property".

The international magazine "Managing Intellectual Property" was founded in 1990 and is researching and ranking IP firms since 1996. Rentsch Partner is the only Swiss law firm represented in "IP Stars Switzerland 2021" with 3 female and 6 male lawyers: Andrea Carreira, Maria Iskic, Magda Streuli-Youssef, Christian Hilti, Alfred Köpf, Louis Lagler, Matthias Städeli, Gregor Wild and Dany Vogel. This strong representation shows that Rentsch Partner offers IP expertise that is unique in its breadth and depth throughout Switzerland.

There is no other firm in Switzerland that is represented by so many practitioners in this ranking than Rentsch Partner.

The London trade magazine “iam Patent 1000” ranks Christian Hilti and Dany Vogel in its 2021 issue as „world’s foremost private practice patent experts” (Global Leaders in Patent Law).

The London trade magazine “iam Patent 1000” ranks Louis Lagler, Alfred Köpf, Christian Hilti, Dany Vogel und Demian Stauber in its 2021 issue as leading attorneys in the field of patent law.

There is no other firm in Switzerland that is represented by so many practitioners in this ranking.

The London-based journal IAM has published an interview with  Andrea Carreira, Christian Hilti and Demian Stauber about patent prosecution in Switzerland. The interview was published in “IAM Global Patent Litigation Guide 2021” and can be downloaded here.

The article first appeared in Global Patent Litigation Guide: Helping businesses navigate the new normal 2021, a supplement to IAM, published by Law Business Research - IP Division. To view the guide in full, please go to www.IAM-media.com. 

The London trade magazine “Chambers Europe” presents Christian Hilti in its 2020 issue as leading attorney in the field of life sciences and patent Litigation.

The London trade magazine “Who’s Who Legal – Patents” presents Christian Hilti in its 2020 issue as leading attorney in the field of Life Sciences.

The London trade magazine “Who’s Who Legal – Patents”presents Christian Hilti and Alfred Köpf in its 2020 issue as attorneys in the field of patent law. Rentsch Partner is the only Swiss firm listed in this ranking both with an attorney at law and a patent attorney. The expert ranking for Switzerland includes in total 23 patent practitioners.

By decision of 15 October 2019, the Federal Patent Court (FPC) rejected the invalidity action of Sandoz against Lilly’s EP 1 313 508 concerning the cancer drug Pemetrexed (O2018_003 – not yet final). The FPC followed Lilly’s arguments and thus confirmed the validity of the patent. It disagreed  with the decision of  the German Federal Patent Court.

Before, Teva Pharma AG (Teva) hat tried to obtain a declaratory judgment for non-infringement against Lilly concerning the same patent, but without success, too.  In that proceeding, Lilly was also successfully represented by Rentsch Partner and Teva’s action was rejected (O2015_004 from the 9 March 2017 / BGer 4A 208/2017 from the 20 October 2017 / BGE 143 III 666).

The London trade magazine "Expert Guides Patents" presents Christian Hilti and Alfred Köpf in its 2019 issue as leading litigators in patent disputes. Rentsch Partner is the only Swiss firm listed in this ranking both with an attorney at law and a patent attorney. The expert ranking for Switzerland includes in total 16 patent practitioners.