Proceedings for infringement

01-08-2013

Marianne Holme

The possibility to oppose a European patent after expiry of the opposition period is governed by Article 105 of the European Patent Convention.

In a brand  new  decision  1713/11  given  by  the  European  Patent Office’s (EPO’s) Board of Appeal  on April  25,  2013 to revoke an EP, the board comments on some legal actions as the qualifying basis for filing  an admissible intervention in pending EPO opposition proceedings.

In the present case the legal provision on which the intervention was based was the first scenario of Article 105 EPC:  ‘proceedings  for  infringement’.

The actual legal proceeding was a Privatanklage raised on behalf of the patent proprietor/patentee by the  exclusive licensee of an EP valid for Austria against the intervener before the Landesgericht  für  Strafsachen Wien  (the  regional  court  of Vienna).  The Privatanklage alleged a wilful infringement of the EP but was dismissed as manifestly flawed.


EPO, EPC, European Patent, IP, board of appeal

WIPR