Patent decision

BL number
O/263/04
Concerning rights in
EP 0430956 B2
Hearing Officer
Mr P Hayward
Decision date
26 August 2004
Person(s) or Company(s) involved
Cartonneries de Thulin S.A. v (1) Wilson Gunn Gee (2) Hot Form Production S.N.C. di Adriano Mariotto & C.
Provisions discussed
PA 1977 section 27
Keywords
Added subject matter, Amendment, Disclosure
Related Decisions
None

Summary

The patent relates to a CD case suitable for holding two discs, of the type which comprises three parts hinged together to open up like a 'triptych'. The two CDs are held on respective faces of one of the outer parts, the opposite part comprising the cover and the central part the base of the case when closed.

In the course of earlier proceedings for infringement and invalidity, the patent had been held invalid by the Court of Appeal because of added matter previously introduced during opposition proceedings in the EPO. The purpose of the amendments now offered was to rectify this defect, and concerned the specification in claim 1 of a numerical value for the maximum angular displacement of the disc-carrying part relative to the base part. The patentee contended that this value was implicitly disclosed in the original specification.

It was held that there was no implicit disclosure of the matter sought to be added. The patentees expert evidence, although unchallenged, did not address directly the question at issue and was therefore of only limited assistance to his case. Notice was taken of judicial statements made in the earlier litigation on the construction of the specification, but none of these was considered to give clear support to the contention that the matter in question had been implicitly disclosed.

Full decision O/263/04 PDF document48Kb