Source: All England Reporter
Publisher Citation: [2002] All ER (D) 160 (Jul)
Neutral Citation: [2002] EWCA Civ 976
Court: Court of Appeal, Civil Division
Judge:

Peter Gibson, Jonathan Parker and Longmore LJJ
Representation Simon Thorley QC and Mark Vanhegan (instructed by Field Fisher Waterhouse) for the claimant.
  Alastair Wilson QC and Peter Colley (instructed by Middleton Potts) for the second defendant.
  The first defendant did not appear and was not represented.
Judgment Dates: 11 July 2002

Catchwords

Patent - Infringement - Validity - Obviousness - Patent in respect of burners for gas hobs - Patent collocation of prior art - Whether patent invalid for obviousness.

The Case

For the purposes of s60(1)(a) of the a seller who had no title but made the contract of carriage did not 'import the product' into the jurisdiction, as the statutory word was 'imports' not 'causes to import'. Furthermore, there was no justification in treating a case of an alleged collocation of prior art as requiring some modification to the four-step test for obviousness when deciding upon the validity of a patent, so that the pieces of prior art were treated as combined. That assumed what had to be proved, that it was obvious to combine the separate disclosures.

Practice Areas

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