Darren Smyth

So, I have changed my Twitter handle because I have a new role at EIP - Head of Knowledge. This means (amongs other things) that I lead our preparations for legal changes and developments. At the moment, that is mainly the Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court!

@downpressor January 1st is literally the feast of the circumcision.

Just occurred to me that all those paintings of naked baby Jesus, was he circumcised? A jewish baby boy would have been on the 8th day of life.

@DominicSelwood The Emperor of Japan would like a word!

The two oldest monarchies in the world get together properly after a few centuries of time out. Pope Leo XIV and KIng Charles III sit on thrones dating back respectively to AD 756 and AD 927.

@zaichishka I am so sorry to learn of your illness and hoping the treatment does its thing. Glad you have a lovely couch to luxuriate on during the difficult time!

The fainting couch is very comfortable 😊 which is good, as I'm probably going to be spending a lot of time on it in the months to come, as I undergo chemotherapy for lymphoma. The doctor I saw Wednesday was optimistic that it could be cured.

@hizaga @zaichishka They were a client of mine and I have visited the factory (which is also a sugar refinery) several times. You can also see it from City Airport. Sorry to report that it does not smell of the syrup.

@zaichishka I wonder if you can smell it in the air there! I imagine so!

Country change! Isa bought some roll cake and I add a touch of Lyle’s Golden Syrup…he agreed after a bite that it was elevated up a notch with that addition!

Here is my report of the state of play at the Unified Patent Court after two years of operation. The new thing in the last six months - lots of cases now settling or otherwise being withdrawn. I estimate the rate about 18% as a lower bound. eip.com/uk/latest/arti…

@DrLucyCradduck @qutlaw @QUT @OxIPMoot So sorry to be missing it this year! but 👋👋👋 from Kyoto.

Congratulations to Matthew Hovi, Ivy Smith, and Kohen Hansen (aka ‘Team Chunky Monkey’) on your award for 5th Place Best Written Submissions at the Oxford Intellectual Property Moot 2025. Your very proud Moot Coach @qutlaw @QUT @OxIPMoot

The avalanche transceiver dispute at the UPC reaches its next stage, with the patentee now having prevailed in the action on the merits (after obtaining a provisional injunction).

The UPC doing their best to make patents enforceable despite difficulties in service in China. Two interesting decisions by default relating to provisional injunctions.

The UPC has considered infringement by equivalents a few times. Here, it declined to opine on a specific test, noting that any test requires functional equivalence as a prerequisite, which was lacking in the case.

Attempts to set aside a decision by default failed. The original failure to meet the defence deadline is confirmed as fatal by the court (although still subject to appeal).

@PaprikaGirl_JP Oh he performed (under his previous name) in London quite a few years ago and I have his autograph on the programme. He is an amazing actor.

I was recently given a small hagoita (羽子板) signed by kabuki actor Ichikawa Danjuro (市川團十郎). It’s my first hagoita. They can get very large and elaborate! This little one is just the right size for me.

I argue that the UPC ruling that is has jurisdiction over the UK part of a European patent to consider infringement is a conventional reading of the Brussels Ibis Regulation - German court has jurisdiction over German defendants is a less controversial reading of the case.

Here, the UPC elects to extend a period for one of the defendants, rather than order a stay, in view of upcoming EPO appeal hearing.

For at least the second time, the UPC Court of Appeal has reversed a first instance decision that I thought was clearly correct. I had better stop predicting.

Provisional injunction on hand held vacuum cleaners overturned on appeal as CoA was not convinced the accused products worked as the patent claim requires.

Having prevailed at the central division with the patent maintained in amended form, Edwards is also successful at the Munich local division in asserting its patent on prosthetic heart valves against Meril. Monika Rai reports - eip.com/uk/latest/arti…

This is the second DexCom case at the Paris Local Division to be decided purely on the issue of the validity of the patent. (The first case was one of the very first UPC decisions on the merits).

The UPC has confirmed that breach of a standstill agreement between the parties does not deprive the Court of jurisdiction, nor does it render an action inadmissible. It can only give rise to liability for breach of contract. @EIP_Knowledge reports - eip.com/uk/latest/arti…

This is an interesting little judgment clarifying what a patentee must do after securing a provisional injunction by the mandatory deadline in order for the injunction not to be revoked.

This is a really interesting decision from the UPC finding infringement by equivalent means, and suggesting a 4 stage test by which equivalents should be assessed. We shall see if it is adopted more widely.