18 January 2015

2015 in Preview – Predictions for the Year Ahead

Crystal BallLast 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:
  1. 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;
  2. 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;
  3. the two Australian patent infringement cases involving non-practising entities Upaid and Vringo;
  4. 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
  5. 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.
Read on for my further thoughts and predictions on these issues.

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