Patent decision

BL number

O/132/05

Concerning rights in

GB 2351111

Hearing Officer

Mr P Hayward

Decision date

12 May 2005

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Roger Michael Elliott and BSP International Foundations Ltd v Expotech Ltd

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 sections13, 37

Keywords

Entitlement

Related Decisions

O/095/04, O/189/04

Summary

The hearing officer had previously ruled that the patent included two inventions, one of which belonged in principle to BSP whilst the other belonged to Expotech, and that two companies were to have joint ownership with cross licensing on an equal basis. This decision was settling the details of the licence terms. The parties had argued for wildly different royalty rates, but the hearing officer decided that because of the international character of the market, there would be least risk of unfairness if he set the cross royalty rate at zero.

Because of the very poor relations between the parties and the possibility that one of the inventions might later be found to be unpatentable, he also (a) granted declaratory relief in order to set a clearer framework for any later disputes, (b) allowed either party to apply to amend the patent even if the other party did not agree. He declined to include undertakings that the parties would not enforce foreign patents in respect of machines exported from the UK.

Full decision O/132/05 63Kb