Patent decision

BL number

O/377/04

Concerning rights in

GB 0220610.0

Hearing Officer

Mr R C Kennell

Decision date

29 December 2004

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Glasgow School of Art v Saquib Ibrahim

Provisions discussed

PA.1977 section 8(1)

Keywords

Costs, Entitlement, Withdrawal

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The claimant, having seen the title of the unpublished application, believed that the defendant was seeking to patent an invention relating to a concept which they were actively researching and which belonged to them by virtue of the defendants employment as a researcher. The defendant denied both these allegations, but withdrew from the proceedings after the claimants had filed evidence, without filing evidence of his own. He said this was in the light of the official search report on the application, and maintained the case set out in his counter-statement. In a decision on the papers, the hearing officer found that the claimant entitled to the application and ordered it to proceed in their name, with publication remaining stayed until the claimant had been given a period to decide whether they wanted to continue with the application.

The hearing officer awarded costs on the standard scale, notwithstanding submissions (i) from the defendant that his costs in prosecuting the application should be offset against any award to the claimant, and (ii) from the claimant that off-scale costs were justified because of the defendants refusal to provide details of the invention to them confidentially, thus necessitating the entitlement proceedings, and his lack of expedition at various stages in the proceedings.