Economists have called for the patent system to preclude the grant of overlapping patent rights. However, the literature is silent on what constitutes an overlap of patent rights and on whether any overlap is legally permissible. This article identifies the existence, and determines the validity...

Patent opposition allows third parties, such as competitors, suppliers, or customers of the patentee, to raise arguments and provide evidence of invalidity to the Patent Office, prior to the patent being finally granted. As a procedure, it has two key objectives acknowledged by courts and...

In an earlier study we analysed how the United States Patent and Trade Mark Office, the European Patent Office and the Japan Patent Office (jointly referred to as the 'Trilateral Offices' or TOs) assessed reach-through patent claims in biotechnology, under the requirements of 'utility', 'written...