Patent decision

BL number
O/425/19
Concerning rights in
GB2529565
Hearing Officer
Mr H Jones
Decision date
23 July 2019
Person(s) or Company(s) involved
BVG Group Limited and Hangzhou Chic Intelligent Technology Co. Ltd.
Provisions discussed
Patents Rules 2007, rule 82(e); Section 72
Keywords
Amendment, Costs, Revocation
Related Decisions
None

Summary

In an application for revocation, the claimant requested permission to amend its statement of case in order to rectify what it acknowledged as insufficiencies in its pleadings and introduce a further piece of prior art into proceedings. The defendant opposed the request and also asked for an award of costs to cover any expenditure directly attributable to the request. The claimant said it was prepared to pay such costs provided that they had been reasonably incurred. The hearing officer considered the principles for allowing statements of case to be amended. While he had concerns about the lackadaisical approach in preparing the original statement of case, he allowed the amendment on the basis that the defendant could be fully compensated for the wasted costs incurred and that it was likely to be the most expeditious way of resolving the dispute.

Full decision O/425/19 PDF document208Kb