Last week I looked at the year just passed, and compared my predictions with reality. This week I want to look at the coming year in patents, to preview some anticipated developments, and to make new predictions for 2015.Here, in brief, are some of the developments that I will be watching this year:
- the application to the High Court by Yvonne D’Arcy, for special leave to appeal the Full Federal Court’s decision in the Myriad gene patents case;
- the appeal to the Full Federal Court by the Commissioner of Patents in the RPL Central case, in relation to the patent-eligibility of computer-implemented inventions;
- the two Australian patent infringement cases involving non-practising entities Upaid and Vringo;
- the High Court has also been asked to review the Full Federal Court’s decision in AstroZeneca v Apotex [2014] FCAFC 99, including the analysis of the ‘starting point’ for assessing inventive step; and
- in the US, the Patent and Trademarks Office will continue ‘refine’ its guidelines for the examination of patent-eligibility, while there will doubtless be further attempts to pass new patent law reforms.
