Patent decision

BL number

O/235/08

Concerning rights in

EP (UK) 1451063

Hearing Officer

Mr A C Howard

Decision date

11 August 2008

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Lockheed Martin Corporation, Hybrid Air Vehicles Ltd

Provisions discussed

Patents Act 1977 Section 37

Keywords

Decline to deal, Disclosure, Pleadings

Related Decisions

None

Summary

This was a preliminary hearing held before the evidence rounds has commenced to consider a request for amendment of the statement of claim; a request for disclosure of material disclosed in related US proceedings; and a contingent request that the comptroller decline to deal with the reference. Regarding the disclosure request, it was decided that even though the relevant documents had already been identified in the US proceedings, the quantity of material involved, the breadth of material covered, and the costs to the UK legal team, meant that the interests of justice would not be advanced by ordering the disclosure. Once this had been decided, the fact that the Court might be more ready to grant the disclosure sought than the comptroller could not be justification for declining to deal with the reference. It was also decided to allow amendment of the statement of claim by addition of a reference to a second patent, but not the inclusion of allegations of bad faith on the part of the defendant. The partial amendment as allowed was not considered to increase the complexity of the case so much as to warrant declining to deal with the reference.