Patent decision

BL number

O/350/17

Concerning rights in

EP(UK)1690772 B1

Hearing Officer

Mr H Jones

Decision date

24 July 2017

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Saunders and Dolleymore V Keter Plastics Ltd

Provisions discussed

Sections 72

Keywords

Costs, Inventive step, Novelty

Related Decisions

None

Summary

An application for revocation of patent number EP(UK)1690772 in the name of Keter Plastics Ltd on the grounds of lack of novelty and inventive step. Foreign equivalents of the patent had been successfully defended in other jurisdictions. The patent relates to a stackable bucket with wheels having an extended back wall which acts as a handle for pulling or pushing the bucket along the ground. The attacks on novelty and inventive step were based on the disclosure of a wheeled cart in US3346271. Both of these attacks failed and scale costs were awarded to the patentee, the hearing officer noting that the claimant was entitled to bring its application before the office despite the fact that the patent had been successfully defended elsewhere.

Full decision O/350/17 448Kb