In January 2020, Gowling WLG's co-head of global Intellectual Property (IP), Gordon Harris, delivered his annual review of the year's UK patent cases, entitled "The Rise of Little Britain".

Gordon gave his usual comprehensive review, backed by a thorough and extensive paper. The paper contains everything you need to know about patent law emerging from the courts in the UK in 2019, including:

  • an update on construction and infringement following the Supreme Court's judgment in Actavis v Eli Lilly;
  • a snapshot of the state of SEP/FRAND case law ahead of the Supreme Court's expected judgment in the Unwired Planet and Conversant cases;
  • the geographical reach of common general knowledge;
  • the Supreme Court's guidance on obviousness in Actavis v ICOS;
  • the direction of travel taken in respect of insufficiency for lack of plausibility and ambiguity/conceptual uncertainty;
  • developments in respect of pleadings, confidentiality and other procedural issues; and
  • the Supreme Court's guidance on employee inventor compensation in Shanks v Unilever.

Gordon also names the Judge of the Year for 2019, and shares his views on some of the current issues and trends in the patent world.

Take a look at Gordon's full annual review of 2019 patent cases.