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14.05.2025

WP Thompson was among the winners in SME News Magazine's 2025 UK Legal Awards.

13.02.2025

Can a third party or intervener continue an appeal if the original appellant withdraws? This question was raised in case T 1286/23. Though the final decision of this case is still pending, this article aims to provide a view on the judgement’s implications.

The patent under appeal for T 1286/23 relates to a handheld skin cleanser, European patent 2941163, originally granted to Foreo AB. However, this patent was later opposed by a third party, Beurer GmbH, who challenged the patent’s validity. Beurer asserted that the patent was invalid on the grounds that it did not meet the requirements of patentability such as added matter, novelty and inventive step.

24.01.2025

The UPC Central Division in Paris has reached a different conclusion from that of the High Court of England and Wales[1] in its recent decision[2] regarding the importance of an expert witness statement in the determination of inventive step. In particular, this decision takes the view that an expert witness, though very knowledgeable on the subject area, may be too qualified to be considered as having the common general knowledge of the skilled person.

22.01.2025

The UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) continues their digital transformation project with what is reported to be a new and simpler way to search for UK patents.  The “One IPO Search” tool is now live and will replace the current search tool “Ipsum”.  This is the first of a suite of new tools to bring all IP services under a single system, termed the One IPO system.