Patent decision

BL number
O/214/11
Concerning rights in
EP1268313
Hearing Officer
Mr P Thorpe
Decision date
17 June 2011
Person(s) or Company(s) involved
Mr Kenneth Farr and Orbis Corporation
Provisions discussed
S37 Patents Act
Keywords
Entitlement
Related Decisions
O/161/08

Summary

The claimant, Mr Kenneth Farr claimed that he was entitled as the inventor to the invention set out in EP 1268313. This related to a dropbox container used to transport and store solid bulk materials. Mr Farr claimed specifically that he communicated the key aspects of the invention to the defendant, Orbis in a series of meetings in 1998. Mr Farr was however unable to provide the necessary evidence to demonstrate this and hence the hearing officer found in favour of Orbis. The hearing officer also noted that because the entitlement reference had been filed more than 2 years after the date of grant of the patent then he would not have been able to make any order transferring any rights in the patent to Mr Farr even if he had found in his favour. Mr Farr in that respect failed to provide the necessary evidence to show that the proprietor knew at the time of grant that it was not entitled to the patent.

Full decision O/214/11 PDF document555Kb