Patent decision

BL number

O/308/05

Concerning rights in

GB 2344348 and GB 2372039

Hearing Officer

Mr P Back

Decision date

23 November 2005

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Secretary of State for Defence v Farrow System Ltd

Provisions discussed

PA.1977 Section 72 (1)

Keywords

Revocation

Related Decisions

O/008/05

Summary

The Claimant submitted amended statements of case with its evidence-in-chief, the amended statements introducing two allegations of prior use. The Defendant objected to the admission of the amended statements in view of the lateness of the amendments and the difficulty in dealing with the prior use grounds. The Hearing Officer was satisfied that the new grounds had became apparent only during collation of the Claimants evidence and found no undue delay or lack of diligence. The public interest would not be served by refusing the amendments. It was accepted that there would inevitably be some detriment to the Defendant in that it would be obliged to respond to the amended grounds, but weighing all the factors the balance went to allowing the amendments. An order for costs was made in favour of the Defendant to compensate for the extra work involved in dealing with the amended statements of case.

Full decision O/308/05 29Kb