UK Court of Appeal Dismisses Appeal to Allow Post-Trial Amendment of a European Patent
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The recent case of Nokia GmbH and Others .v. IPCom GmbH & Co. involved an appeal against a decision of Mr Justice Floyd who had held that IPCom’s two European Patents (relating to cellular mobile phone technology), were invalid for obviousness.
IPCom had made two applications to amend the patents, one of which was made shortly before the trial and the other one after the trial. Mr Justice Floyd refused both applications firstly on the basis that the application made just before the trial raised a whole new set of issues and secondly, on the basis that it would have necessitated a new trial on issues that should have been determined in the main proceedings.
The Court of Appeal upheld the judge’s refusal to amend the patents, ruling that IPCom had proposed amendments too late for them to be dealt with fairly at trial. Lord Justice Jacob held “they were not, as they could have been, formulated at a much earlier stage of the proceedings, a stage when they could fairly be considered at the trial.” Accordingly, the Court of Appeal held that the judge was correct in regarding the applications to amend the patents as procedurally unfair and that it was an abuse of process to subject the other party to further litigation.
