Omnibus claims are now effectively prohibited following the Raising the Bar amendments, however a great many patents including such claims have been granted. The Full Federal Court decision,GlaxoSmithKline Australia Pty Ltd v Reckitt Benckiser Healthcare (UK) Ltd [2016] FCAFC 90, provides some welcome guidance on how such claims should be construed. At trial, it had …
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We are delighted to announce the appointment of our new Managing Partner, Ross McFarlane. Ross will take up his new role on 1 July 2016. Ross has been a Partner since 2006, and was elected to the POF Group Board in 2011. He is a member of the Electronics, Physics and IT practice group, and …
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We are pleased to announce the appointment of three new Senior Associates and two new Associates, effective from 1 July 2016. Our new Senior Associates are: Magda Bramante BSc LLB LLM Magda has a wide range of experience in all aspects of IP including patent, design, trade mark, copyright and trade practices issues. Magda is also …
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The rise and fall of Theranos has seen the unravelling of this US based health-technology start-up, with the once heralded company now under criminal investigation and facing a class action. We are proud to host BioMelbourne’s BioBriefing session: “Health-Tech and Hype: Lessons from Theranos” to be held on 5 July 2016. At this event, a …
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Following a referendum vote on 23 June 2016, the British electorate has decided to leave the European Union (EU). However, it is likely to be at least 2 years before legislation is enacted to enable the United Kingdom (UK) to exit the EU. During that time, EU legislation remains in effect. Key messages relating to …
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We are pleased to announce that POF partner, Russell Waters, has been recognised as an Expert Guide in Euromoney’s Trade mark Expert Guides 2016. Partners Greg Chambers and Ross McFarlane have also been recognised for their expertise in the Patents Experts Guides. For 20 years, the Expert Guides have consolidated a database of the growing …
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In May 2016, The High Court of Australia dismissed an application for special leave to appeal the RPL Central decision1 of the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia. The Full Federal Court found that RPL Central’s invention was not patentable as it was simply a scheme or idea implemented on a generic computer, …
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Can an overseas company be sued for infringement of an Australian trade mark even though it engages in no commercial activity in Australia? A recent trade mark case says yes – Playgro Pty Ltd v Playgo Art & Craft Manufactory Limited [2016] FCA 280 (22 March 2016). The Playgo companies were incorporated in Hong Kong …
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The increase in businesses using the internet to promote their products and services has prompted a corresponding growth in the ways in which trademarks may be used and abused online. Apart from obvious uses as domain names and on websites, trademarks may also be used as metatags (invisible tags which describe a web page’s content), …
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There have been recent reports of the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that the Google Books project, which involves digitising books, does not infringe copyright in the United States. Digitising books permits users to search books online as well as download individual pages of books displaying the search result. The decision was based on …
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