Patent decision

BL number

O/431/16

Concerning rights in

GB2523591B, PCT/GB 2015/050538 & PCT/GB 2015 050539

Hearing Officer

Mr S Probert

Decision date

9 September 2016

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

NGPOD Global Ltd v Aspirate N Go Limited

Provisions discussed

Sect 37(8), Sect 12(2), Rule 74

Keywords

Decline to deal

Related Decisions

None

Summary

This is a consolidated entitlement dispute. After filing a counter-statement, the defendant asked the Comptroller to decline to deal with the references because of the importance of the patents to the defendant, the nature of the issues in dispute, the procedural complexity, and the different costs regimes in proceedings before the Comptroller and before the High Court. The claimant opposed the request.

Following the guidance in the Luxim case, the Hearing Officer did not accept that the issues in these proceedings would more properly be determined by the Court, and therefore he did not decline to deal. Regarding the complexity of the factual issues and the non-patent law issues in the case, the Hearing Officer observed that in the end, the successful party is usually the one that succeeds in making these issues look easiest.

Full decision O/431/16 294Kb