Patent decision

BL number

O/144/13

Concerning rights in

EP1908319

Hearing Officer

Mr P Slater

Decision date

3 April 2013

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Anthony R Timson and Cellxion Limited v M.M.I Research Limited

Provisions discussed

Patents Act 1977 Section 12, 37

Keywords

Costs

Related Decisions

O/263/11, O/346/12

Summary

This decision relates to the issue of costs, the original claim having been withdrawn. The defendants having refused to accept an initial offer requested an off-the-scale payment on the basis that not only was the original claim unlikely to succeed but that it should have been withdrawn following filing of the counterstatement. A subsequent request for disclosure by the claimant was considered by the defendants to be misconceived, and an attempt on their behalf to “fish” for material that had no bearing upon the claims made in their statement of grounds. The Hearing Officer concluded that whilst the request for disclosure was somewhat speculative and could have been avoided this did not warrant an award of costs off the standard scale. An order in line with the scale was therefore made.

Full decision O/144/13 35Kb