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With the first self-driving vehicles (SDVs) likely to be commercially available by 2025, it seems that the transport revolution is nearly upon us.  Among the major players in this new emerging market, we have the established automotive firms investing in digital technologies, with an upcoming group of patent holders  specializing in  wireless communications and big data that are of crucial relevance to SDVs. The EPO published, in November 2018 a report entitled “Patents and self-driving vehicles” ( find it here ), which gives a very interesting overview of the patent landscape in this important emerging field. The patents and patent applications related to SDVs are divided into two main categories,  the automated vehicle sector and the smart environment sector. The former covers technologies that are embodied in the vehicle itself (such as enabling vehicles to make autonomous decisions), while the latter concerns technologies that allow SDVs to communicate with each ...

Four years is a long time in politics but not a particularly long time in the land of government reports. Just under four years ago the UK Intellectual Property Office commissioned research to address the lack of existing data on design infringement. The results of that research were published last week .  Designs are an important part of the UK economy. In 2015, the UK design economy was worth 6% of the nation’s total economy. It was therefore considered a worthwhile exercise to review the current designs regime and identify opportunities for improvement. The report includes some positive indicators about the design sector " there is some evidence that the design sector as a whole is thriving, and that the use of design improves the productivity of firms in other sectors ." It is less positive about the legal mechanisms which are designed to protect this: " there is still little knowledge based on reliable evidence about the effectiveness of the legal system to achieve ...

Kat standard If you are into standards and patents, then you may want to check out the forthcoming conference,   Standards & Patents , that will be held in London on 5 and 6 December 2018. The agenda tackles topics such as  AI, Open Source, and the future of patents.  Speakers  include leading in-house authorities (eg, Nokia, Ericsson, and Cisco) external counsel, IP management experts, and members of the judiciary. The other good news is that IPKat readers enjoy a 15% discount in the registration fee. For further information and to register:  click here , and use the VIP discount code  FKW82868IPKE2 .

If you are interested in and/or working in the field of patent law, then you may be happy to hear that the 12 th Annual Standards & Patents Conference is taking place in London on 5 and 6 December. The focus of this year’s event is on – inter alia – patents and standards, FRAND licensing, competition, litigation, SEP in the IoT, AI, and Open Source. Speakers include in-house and external counsel, IP management experts, and members of the judiciary. The other good news is that our friends at KNect365 are offering IPKat readers a 15% discount on the registration fee. For more information, click here and use the VIP code FKW82868IPKE to register.

P ublic procurement of medicines has proven to be a tricky business. A co-operation between the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFMPA), the global trade association representing the research-based pharmaceutical industry, was launched on the 25 th of September 2018. This new initiative, the Patent Information Initiative for Medicines (Pat-INFORMED), is a database through which patent holders provide information about patents covering approved medicines. The database does not only constitute a database of information but also a communication platform between procurement agencies and pharmaceutical companies. WIPO is hosting the database and providing the resources to ensure its continued development, while IFPMA is working closely with the 20 leading research-based biopharmaceutical companies that have backed this initiative to help ensure a consistent and coordinated approach. "WIPO...

The guidance note talks about patents. As readers will know, much of the substantive UK patent law comes from international conventions. Consequently, patents are largely outside the remit of the EU and there are less Brexit related issues to consider. However, with the unified patent court as the mystery wild card in the patent mix, arguably patents raise more complex Brexit questions. The full guidance note is available here . As for trade marks & designs and exhaustion of rights, the key bits are below together with a bit of commentary. SPCs, biotech, compulsory licences and clinical trials  The plan is for the EU Withdrawal Act 2018 to save the day and ensure that relevant EU legislation is retained in UK law. Consequently, "the existing systems will... remain in place, operating independently from the EU regime, with all the current conditions and requirements." This means that EU law on SPCs will be kept in UK law and "this law, along with the existing supporti...

A leading banker in this Kat's national backyard observed last week that conventional banks that ignore FinTech do so at their long-term peril. Ahead of the curve is Singapore, a world center for banking. Kat friend Constance Leong describes how Singapore is implementing fast track protection of FinTech patent applications. The box-office smash hit, "Crazy Rich Asians" , is on everyone’s lips (and social media feeds) nowadays. The Singapore-set Hollywood movie, featuring an all-Asian cast, comically peers into the lives of the one-percenters strutting their stuff in famously up-market Singapore. Love it or hate it, the movie nails one thing for sure: Singapore is a playground for the financially savvy; a haven for financial technology (commonly known as “ FinTech ”). In this spirit, the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (“IPOS”) has launched a fast-track patent scheme determined to accelerate innovation for finance sector inventions. This one-year scheme, ...