Arrow Generics Ltd v Merck & Co Inc

Subject Matter

PATENT — European patent — Application — European Patent Office revoking defendant's patent — Claimant introducing generic product — Defendant making divisional applications carved from original patent — EPO allowing divisionals covering claimant's generic product to proceed — Claimant seeking declaration that own product obvious at priority date — Whether relief precluded by statutory provision restricting challenges to validity of patents — Whether jurisdiction to grant relief — Patents Act 1977, s 74

[2008] Bus LR 487

PATENT — European patent — Validity — Defendant making divisional application — European Patent Office granting patent with United Kingdom designation — Defendant withdrawing designation before grant mentioned in Bulletin — Grant erroneously mentioned with United Kingdom designation — Whether patent extending to United Kingdom — Whether jurisdiction to declare invalid — Convention on the Grant of European Patents (1978), arts 79(3), 97(4)

[2008] Bus LR 487