A User's Guide to Patents, Fifth Edition provides guidance on the areas of European and UK patent law and procedure that are most important in day-to-day practice. This new edition sets out how patents can be obtained, exploited and enforced and addresses wider public policy aspects of patents and their economic significance, as well as past and likely future trends that affect legal practitioners. It is essential reading for IP practitioners, solicitors and barristers, patent attorneys, in-house lawyers, management executives and inventors. Unique selling points: Explains how patents can be exploited and enforced by reference to the most recent UK and EPO case law Identifies and discusses the different patent law issues that can arise in specific industrial sectors Full tabulation of all English patent validity and infringement decisions given after full trial since 1997 Addresses wider public policy aspects of patents and their economic significance, as well as past and likely future trends in the field, both in Europe and internationally The following relevant developments are included: The new UK law as to infringement by equivalents following Actavis v Lilly (UKSC 2017) The degree to which new types of plant, produced by using certain modern biotechnological techniques, can be patented in the light of the exclusion for 'products obtained by essentially biological processes' and the ongoing controversy as to this between the EPO, the EPO Boards of Appeal and the EU The developing case law in the UK and the EPO on plausibility in the context of insufficiency and obviousness The Unjustified Threats Act 2017 and other procedural developments, such as those involving Arrow type declarations of obviousness Developments in standards related patent litigation, as in Unwired Planet v Huawei (Patents Court 2017, CA 2018)

Roughton, Johnson & Cook on Patents (formerly known as the Modern Law of Patents) is an essential resource for patent lawyers and patent attorneys. The title offers a fresh and comprehensive exposition of law and procedure relating to patents in the UK and Europe; and includes key precedents and court forms, covers useful historical information and materials, and also explores recent and future developments in patent law in one handy volume. Now in its fifth edition, the title will be fully revised and updated to take into account all the latest developments since the last edition, and will include coverage of: * the impact of the UK leaving the European Union on patent law and practice (eg on jurisdiction, rules of exhaustion, SPCs, Border Regulation, EU compulsory licences, etc); * key Supreme Court decisions and significant decisions of lower courts; * important decisions of Enlarged Board at the EPO and the Technical Boards of Appeal; and * retained EU case law and the rules of precedent under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018.

Written by some of the most eminent IP practitioners, The Modern Law of Patents offers a fresh, and comprehensive exposition of the law relating to patents in the UK and Europe, including before the Unified Patent Court. Updates in the new fourth edition will include: * Supreme Court's decision in Eli Lilly v Actavis [2017] UKSC 48 and the revival of a doctrine of equivalents; * The new threats provisions under the Intellectual Property (Unjustified Threats) Act 2017 and its relationship to malicious prosecution following Willers v Joyce [2016] UKSC 43; * Declarations of obviousness: Fujifilm Kyowa Kirin Biologics v Abbvie Biotechnology Ltd [2017] EWCA Civ * The effect on employee compensation following Shanks v Unilever [2017] EWCA Civ 2; * The Unitary Patent Court, including the Protocol on provisional applications (PPA) and the most recent (18th) draft of the Rules of Procedure; * Developments in IPEC practice, including the costs ramifications of PPL v Hagan [2016] EWHC 3076 (IPEC) [although there is talk of this being reversed by an amendment to the CPR]; * The developments in cases on damages and account of profits case law * Standards Patents and FRAND damages: Unwired Planet International Ltd v Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd & Anor [2017] EWHC 711 (Pat) * Settlements and competition law: T-472/13 Ludbeck ECLI:EU:T:2016:449 (on appeal C-591/16). * An exploration of the likely effects of Brexit on patent law; * All the developments in practice under the Patents Act 1977, the Patent Cooperation Treaty and at the European Patent Office.

European Union law affects the law of intellectual property in two main ways. The first is under EC Treaty provisions on non-discrimination, free movement of goods (in relation to parallel imports) and principles of competition law (in relation to licensing of IPRs or refusal to grant such licenses). A significant part of this book deals with those aspects of Community law that are common to most intellectual property rights across the EC, including the effect of the EC treaty on national intellectual property rights, limited harmonisation of those rights in some areas, and how EU law impacts on enforcement. The second way in which EU law effects intellectual property is in those areas where the substantive national intellectual property laws of the member states have been harmonised, or supplemented, by the establishment of Community-wide unitary intellectual property protection. The rest of the book looks in detail at the effect of Community law and of harmonisation on specific intellectual property rights, including copyright and related rights, trade marks, geographical indications, designs, database rights, patents and plant variety rights .

The law of trade secrets is one of the most important and fastest developing areas of intellectual property, but is by far the least harmonised internationally. Indeed, the protection of trade secrets was not mandated by any international treaty until the 1994 Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, which nonetheless left countries with significant latitude as to how they should implement such obligations. Since the last edition the EU Trade Secrets Directive has had the effect of establishing minimum levels of protection in the Member States of the EEA, but major differences of approach still remain, and the Directive has neither achieved total harmonisation under the civil law nor had any effect on the protection of trade secrets by means of the criminal law. The wide variety of approaches to the protection of trade secrets internationally betrays the murky legal origins of such protection. Are they protected by civil actions, in the criminal courts, or both? And from the point of view of the civil courts, is their protection effected under unfair competition law, as seen in many civil law countries, or is it based instead on some implied contract, fiduciary or other equitable obligation theory, as seen in common law countries? Edited by leading IP practitioner Trevor Cook, this important title demystifies the law of trade secrets in over 30 jurisdictions, covering substantive and procedural aspects of both criminal and civil law and exploring the final remedies available under each. Designed to provide clear, comprehensive and practical guidance, this is a powerful tool for anyone requiring a broader and fuller understanding of trade secret protection globally.