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Full-Text Articles in Law

Patent Litigation In Europe—A Glimmer Of Hope? Present Status And Future Perspectives, Joseph Straus Jan 2000

Patent Litigation In Europe—A Glimmer Of Hope? Present Status And Future Perspectives, Joseph Straus

Washington University Journal of Law & Policy

Little imagination is needed to realize the magnitude of the potential for European patents’ validity and infringement litigation in the fifteen Member States of the European Union.


Strategic Disclosure In The Patent System, Douglas Lichtman, Scott Baker, Kate Kraus Jan 2000

Strategic Disclosure In The Patent System, Douglas Lichtman, Scott Baker, Kate Kraus

Scholarship@WashULaw

Patent applications are evaluated in light of the prior art. What this means is that patent examiners evaluate a claimed invention by comparing it with what in a rough sense corresponds to the set of ideas and inventions already known to the public. This is done for three reasons. First, the comparison helps to ensure that patents issue only in cases where an inventor has made a non-trivial contribution to the public's store of knowledge. Second, it protects a possible reliance interest on the part of the public since, once an invention is widely known, members of the public might …