Revocation

The laws of the United Kingdom, Germany and many other countries provide for revocation of patents after grant.

United Kingdom

An action to revoke a U.K. patent can be commenced in the Intellectual Property Office (the U.K. Patent Office), the Patents Court or indeed the Patents County Court. Proceedings before the IPO are considerably cheaper, but there is a right of appeal to the Patents Court, so parties seeking revocation often prefer to go straight to the Court.

The U.K. has emerged as a popular forum in recent years for international companies seeking to revoke patents, because of the high proportion of court decisions that have resulted in revocation.

Straw Man

For information about applying for revocation of a patent through the anonymity of a "straw man", see the following article published in our Autumn 2007 edition of our newsletter: Straw Man Revocation

Germany

In Germany, once the 3-month opposition period has ended, it is no longer possible to apply to the Patent Office to revoke a patent. One must instead apply to the Patents Court in Munich. We can handle such an action through our Munich office.