Azam and Livesey (Patent): IPO 22 Dec 2010

IPO Just before the parties were due to be heard in a dispute over ownership of an application under the Patent Co-operation Treaty, the issue was raised of the validity of an assignment which appeared to cover all rights to the inventive matter contained in the application. As this was a point of central importance to the matter in dispute, and it concerned pure contract law, the Hearing Officer decided that overall the question would more properly be determined by the court and declined to deal with it. A request to allow three months for starting a claim in the court (as opposed to the normal two weeks specified under the Civil Procedure Rules) was refused on the grounds that there were no special circumstances in this case to justify departing from the normal procedure.

Judges:

Mr A C Howard

Citations:

[2010] UKIntelP o43810, O/438/10, PCT/GB2008/000706

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Patents Act 1977 12

Intellectual Property

Updated: 23 October 2022; Ref: scu.458148