No Doctrine Of Equivalents

Readers may recall speculation at the time of the EPC 2000 that the amendments to the Protocol of Interpretation of Article 69 of the EPC might herald a new doctrine of equivalents. Here we report on the case of Ancon v. ACS Stainless Steel Fixing, in which Ancon tried to argue that their patent for a channel assembly was infringement notwithstanding that the defendant’s product did not have a certain claimed feature. They argued that by virtue of the amendments  made to the Protocol in 2000, there was indeed infringed on a doctrine of equivalents. The Court of Appeal pointed out that the House of Lords has already indicated that there has been no change to the EPC in this respect (Kirin-Amgen v Hoechst Marion Roussel). There is nothing in the travaux préparatoires to the EPC 2000 to show a clear intention to change the law in this way.