Patent decision

BL number

O/060/07

Concerning rights in

GB2267412 B and GB9027784.9

Hearing Officer

Mr P Back

Decision date

26 February 2007

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Northern Lights Music Ltd v Conversor Products Ltd

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 sections 37 and 8 . Civil Procedure Rules - part 31.

Keywords

Disclosure, Entitlement, Evidence

Related Decisions

None

Summary

These entitlement proceedings relate to the granted patent, GB2267412, and its priority document GB9027784.9.

Prior to the evidence rounds, the Claimant made a request for specific disclosure of documents held by the Defendant and by several other parties, believing their disclosure would help its case. The Defendant and the other parties refused the request. It was agreed that the Hearing Officer should consider written arguments and issue a preliminary decision on specific disclosure without the need for an oral hearing.

The Hearing Officer decided that the majority of the requested documents did not relate to the mat ters being decided in these proceedings (i.e. entitlement) and made no order in respect of them.

However, documents relating to clauses in an assignment agreement, which appears to have assigned the patent rights to the Defendant, were considered to relate to the matters being decided. An appropriate order for their disclosure was made.