Patent decision
- BL number
- O/291/19
- Concerning rights in
- GB2451719 GB2496951
- Hearing Officer
- Mr H Jones
- Decision date
- 28 May 2019
- Person(s) or Company(s) involved
- Rockwool International A/S and Knauf Insulation Limited
- Provisions discussed
- Section 72
- Keywords
- Added subject matter, Amendment, Certificate of contested validity, Costs, Inventive step, Novelty, Revocation, Sufficiency
- Related Decisions
- None
Summary
The claimant requested revocation of parent and divisional patents relating to formaldehyde free, sugar-based binder compositions used in the manufacture of mineral wool insulation boards on the grounds on lack of novelty and/or a lack of inventive step over prior art document WO 2007/014236 (D3). D3 discloses a sugar-based binder composition for use in mineral wool insulation. The defendant requested unconditional amendment of the patents in order to specify the nature of the acid precursor used in manufacturing the binder composition, but the claimant maintained that the patents as proposed to be amended did not overcome the attacks on validity. The claimant argued that the proposed amendments added subject matter and that the patents did not sufficiently disclose the inventions across the whole scope of the amended claims. Expert reports were received from both sides as to the person skilled in the art, the common general knowledge and the skilled person’s understanding of the teaching of D3. The hearing officer found that the patents as proposed to be amended were valid over D3 and certified his finding by way of a certificate of contested validity.
Full decision O/291/19 
337Kb
