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Confidentiality restrictions around clinical trials and prior public use (T 0670/20)

The IPKat

The question became whether the patients could be considered members of the public, and whether their participation in the clinical trial therefore constituted prior public use of the formulation. As such, a patient may have discussed the trial without disclosing information about the tablet itself.

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Guest Post by Profs. Masur & Ouellette: Public Use Without the Public Using

Patently-O

What is it that makes a usepublic” for purposes of the public use bar? Does it matter whether the person doing the using is a member of the public, as opposed to the inventor? Or does it matter whether the use is itself in public, as opposed to taking place in secret behind closed doors?

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“Prior public use”: an effective ground for opposition against the grant of a European patent

Garrigues Blog

This opposition procedure for European patents is particularly useful when the patent in question is hindering our commercial interests and we have adequate reasons to revoke its registration. One of the most effective ways of obtaining the revocation is to prove “prior public use”. We look at what this consists of below.

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Public-Use Bar: What Startups Need to Know

IP Watchdog

However, fewer startups are aware of the public-use bar and how activities pursued with the goal of growing their businesses may unwittingly invoke it.

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Does Displaying a Flowering Plant Preclude Patenting It?

The IP Law Blog

This month the Federal Circuit decided a case involving whether the display of a flowering plant constitutes an invalidating prior public use. Attendees had no confidentiality obligations and “were not provided any gene or breeding information.” Under those facts, the Federal Circuit determined there was no prior public use.

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Federal Circuit Narrows AIA Grace Period: Public Disclosure Must Make Invention ‘Reasonably Available’

Patently-O

The basic holding is that the 102(a)(2)/(b)(2) safe harbor triggered by an inventor’s pre-filing “public disclosure” of the invention requires that the invention be made “reasonably available to the public.” ” Neither public uses nor private sales satisfy this requirement. 333 (1881).

Invention 111
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Their Copyrights Expired. The Legal Threats Keep Coming.

Copyright Lately

The email, which Center Director Jennifer Jenkins shared with me for Copyright Lately, claimed that the Berne Convention prevents Tintin from entering the public domain and further suggested that the U.S. January 27, 2025 email from Tintinimaginatio to Duke Law’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain.