Gareth Howe

Further to our post on 22 June 2011, following the second reading speech of the Property Laws Amendment (Raising The Bar) Bill 2011 the debate on this important reform legislation has been adjourned. 

On 23 June 2011, the French Health Minister proposed significant reforms to the French pharmaceutical regulatory system.

In February this year we blogged about the integration of patent application and examination procedures in Australia and New Zealand.

This was the question that the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia was asked to consider in Seafood Innovations Pty Ltd v Richard Bass Pty Ltd [2011] FCAFC 83.

A recent decision of the Federal Court has emphasised the difficulty associated with seeking summary judgment in patent matters, where issues of invalidity are often complex and require expert evidence.

In what is seeming like the never ending fight over a dip tube patent, the Federal Court has handed another win to VIP Plastic Packaging in its long running dispute with BMW Plastics regarding a patent for a “variable-length dip tube for a fluid transfer container”. 

Following from our previous post, on 3 June 2011, the Federal Government released its responses to the Advisory Council on Intellectual Property (ACIP) report entitled Post-Grant Patent Enforcement Strategies. 

Further to our previous post, the European Commission has recently launched an official investigation into a settlement agreement made between the US company Cephalon, and the Israeli generic medicine manufacturer, Teva.