AFR - Inventors get backing for patent battle
AFR reports that the High Court in Lockwood v Doric has strengthened the ability of inventors to defend their patents by pointing to evidence of high sales volumes, or that their product has been copied.
The courts have previously been reluctant to consider secondary evidence, such as commercial success, in deciding whether a patent satisfies the threshold test of an “inventive step”.
Matthew Swinn, Corrs Chambers Westgarth, said that “trying to persuade the courts to unpick what’s due to marketing and what’s due to the patent will always be tricky. But we can expect courts to pay more attention to this point in the future”.
AFR - Inventors get backing for patent battle (20 July 2007)