Patent Oppositions and Appeals
About
Timing your opposition strategies
The opposition procedure offers third parties an opportunity to attack a European or German patent for a limited period after grant. This option is usually a much more appealing alternative to attacking it through the local procedures on a country-by-country basis after national ratification which can be more time consuming and costly, and the results may vary in different jurisdictions.
Contacts
- Maeve O'Flynn
- Partner
- London
- +44 (0)20 7864 2856
Experience
Represented Innovacell in opposition related to muscle derived cells.
T 0527/17, EPO
Represented Innovacell in opposition related to the use of myoblasts for treating the urinary sphincter muscle.
T 1031/16, EPO
Represented Innovacell in opposition related to the use of myoblasts for treating stress urinary incontinence.
T 1050/12, EPO
Finnegan represented BTG in defending its granted European patent in an appeal by Kreussler against the decision of the EPO to reject its opposition. The patent relates to BTG’s Varithena sclerotherapy foam product for treatment of varicose veins that has recently received regulatory approval in the U.S. During the opposition, we argued that the experimental evidence produced by Kreussler was deliberately misleading. We presented our own evidence showing why the experiments performed by Kreussler failed and how merely following the explicit teaching of the patent would avoid such failure. At appeal, Kreussler was limited to a single prior art document and only a subset of the granted claims was considered to be challenged. At the appeal hearing in surprisingly quick fashion, the EPO denied Kreussler’s grounds of appeal and maintained the patent in its granted form.
Appeal No. T1996/12-3.3.05, EPO
Defended three patents of a world-leading provider of cinema technology in opposition proceedings before the European Patent Office, including two appeals. Enforced the same three patents against a competitor and its German distributor in infringement lawsuits and related appeals.
EPO
Advised and represented a medical devices company as the plaintiff in infringement proceedings and together with a patent attorney in the defense in opposition proceedings before the European Patent Office (EPO).
German Civil Patent Courts
EPO
