Patent decision

BL number

O/268/02

Concerning rights in

EP(UK)0804763

Hearing Officer

Mr P Hayward

Decision date

4 July 2002

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Intel Corporation Via Technologies Incorporated

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 Section 27(5)

Keywords

Evidence

Related Decisions

[2002] UKIntelP o07102

Summary

In an opposed amendment action under section 27, the opponent, Via, initially objected on grounds both of discretion, ie relating to the applicants conduct and good faith, and also validity. At an earlier hearing, the hearing officer ordered, with the parties consent, that Via should be limited in these proceedings to the discretionary grounds alone. Intel then filed evidence in chief including a witness statement which Via considered to include matters relevant to validity since it dealt with the relevance of the prior art to the claimed invention. The hearing officer decided that parts of the witness statement relating to the background to the proceedings, and a primer for the technology of the patent in suit would be admitted, but that parts which related solely to the question of whether the patent as amended would be valid, would be struck out since such evidence could not possibly help with determination of discretionary issues. To admit it would allow the proceedings to be drawn into a detailed consideration of validity which would undermine the point of the order excluding validity grounds. Neither was the witness statement necessary for the applicant to discharge their duty to make full disclosure of the circumstances, which could be achieved by other evidence.