ARCHIVED: This Practice Note has been archived and is no longer maintained. It contains closed legislative proposals, published judgments from 2019–2021 and closed consultations that are no longer featured in the current Patents tracker. To track the progress of current legislative proposals, judgments and consultations related to patents, see Practice Notes: Patents tracker—UK and Patents tracker—EU. Judgments—Supreme Court What's happening? When? Find out more Secretary of State for Health and another (Appellants) v Servier Laboratories Ltd and others (Respondents) [2021] UKSC 24UKSC 2019/0172 2 July 2021: Supreme Court judgment delivered.14 April 2021: Supreme Court hearing.11 March 2020: permission to appeal to the Supreme Court granted.12 July 2019: Court of Appeal judgment delivered. Damages claim following injunction in patent proceedings This case concerns Servier’s enforcement of the UK designation of its patent for the alpha crystalline form of the tert-butylamine salt of perindopril (in particular by obtaining injunctions against other pharmaceutical companies) and the later finding that the patent was invalid.The Secretary of State for Health (SoS) buys drugs on behalf of the NHS.

This Practice Note tracks the progress of key judgments, legislative proposals and current consultations, guidance and reports related to patents and trade secrets in the EU. For progress of judgments, legislative proposals and current consultations, guidance and reports related to patents and trade secrets in the UK, see Practice Note: Patents tracker—UK. Legislation, consultations, guidance and reports What's happening? When? Find out more Regulation (EU) 2025/2645 on compulsory licensing for crisis management and amending Regulation (EC) No 816/2006 19 January 2026: Regulation in force30 December 2025: Regulation published in the Official Journal of the EU27 October 2025: EU Council gave its final approval to the Regulation21 May 2025: EU Council and European Parliament reached provisional agreement on the Regulation24 June 2024: EU Council adopted its negotiating mandate13 March 2024: European Parliament adopted its first reading position16 October 2023: First reading at the European Parliament27 April 2023–13 July 2023: Proposed Regulation open for feedback27 April 2023: Proposed Regulation published29 September 2022:

This Practice Note tracks the progress of judgments, legislative proposals and current consultations, guidance and reports related to patents and trade secrets in the UK. For information about judgments, legislative proposals and current consultations, guidance and reports related to patents and trade secrets in the EU, see Practice Note: Patents tracker—EU. For archived items on patents, see Practice Notes: Patents tracker—UK 2022–2023 [Archived] and Patents tracker 2019–2021 [Archived]. Legislation, consultations, guidance and reports What's happening? When? Find out more Consultation on the Draft FRAND Guidelines Discussion Paper 25 September–26 October 2026: Consultation open The Patent Mediation and Arbitration Centre (PMAC) launched a public consultation on the Draft FRAND Guidelines Discussion Paper, developed by the PMAC.The PMAC Guidelines will provide a non-binding and flexible framework of best practices for resolving FRAND disputes through mediation, arbitration, expert determination, or hybrid procedures, emphasising party autonomy, confidentiality, proportionality, and the early definition of the dispute’s scope. The draft also addresses the selection of neutrals, evidence and patent portfolio valuation, parallel court proceedings, and possible outcomes, and will be refined based on stakeholder

ARCHIVED: This Practice Note has been archived and is no longer maintained. It contains closed legislative proposals, published judgments from 2022–2023 and closed consultations that are no longer featured in the current UK Patents tracker. To track the progress of current legislative proposals, judgments and consultations related to patents, see Practice Notes: Patents tracker—UK and Patents tracker—EU. Judgments—Supreme Court What's happening? When? Find out more Thaler v Comptroller General of Patents Trade Marks and Designs [2023] UKSC 49 20 December 2023: Supreme Court judgment delivered2 March 2023: Supreme Court hearing12 August 2022: Permission to appeal granted by the Supreme Court21 September 2021: Judgment of the Court of Appeal delivered21 September 2020: Judgment of the Patents Court delivered4 December 2019: UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) decision delivered (BL O/741/19) AI and inventorship The Supreme Court has delivered its judgment in Thaler v Comptroller, upholding the Court of Appeal’s findings that in order to patent an invention the ‘inventor’ has to be a ‘person’ and not an artificial intelligence (AI) machine,

This Practice Note introduces the UK law on employee inventions, namely when and how an employee who invents something at work will be allowed to either own the invention they made, or if they do not own it, eg if employed to invent, the circumstances in which they can require their employer to give them compensation for developing an invention that it is of great value to the company. Many employees engaged in research and development (R&D) invent products and processes that lead to significant financial rewards for their employers. Under certain circumstances, when an employee has made an invention in the course of their job, they have the right to seek compensation from their employer, even if the nature of their job means that they were ‘employed to invent’ because they spend at least some of their work time making inventions. This is in recognition of the work the employee has done, when they are not able to own the invention they produced. Rights in employees’ inventions Who is an employee? The first consideration must be whether

This Practice Note sets out the rules on who is entitled to own a patent. It also examines the rules regarding co-ownership when more than one person owns (or should own) a patent. Finally, it discusses patent entitlement proceedings. Patent entitlement disputes can arise before or after the patent is granted, as well as before a patent has even been filed. Why ownership of IP is important A single creation can result in a number of different IP rights but the owner of each right may be different and some of the rights may be jointly owned. In order to avoid disputes regarding IP ownership it is advisable to consider ownership at the outset before a creation is made or, if this has not been done, as soon as possible after creation. The rules on ownership are complex and differ for each IP right. For more information about ownership of copyright, trade marks and designs, see Practice Notes: • Copyright—authorship and ownership • UK registered and unregistered designs • Application to register a UK trade mark There

'Paternity' is the legal status of a man as the father of a child.

This is the right of fathers to take leave as the primary caregiver for their new born or newly adopted child.

This Practice Note considers the position in relation to paternity leave and statutory paternity pay (SPP) in relation to birth or adoption. Broadly, statutory paternity leave and pay allows the secondary carer (ie the father, spouse or partner of the child’s mother, or the secondary adopter), to take paid time off following the birth or adoption of a child. For information on the position where the child’s expected week of childbirth (EWC) began on or before 6 April 2024 or the expected date of placement of a child for adoption was before 6 April 2024, see Practice Note: Paternity leave and pay—pre-6 April 2024 [Archived]. From 6 April 2026, the Employment Rights Act 2025 (ERA 2025) makes the following changes: • paternity leave is a ‘day one’ right (see: Eligibility conditions—birth and Eligibility conditions—adoption, below), and • there is no restriction on taking paternity leave after having taken shared parental leave (SPL) in relation to the same child (see: Overview of paternity leave and pay, below) Transitional arrangements are in place so that newly-eligible parents

FORTHCOMING CHANGE: Under the Paternity Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024 (currently in draft) and the Statutory Paternity Pay (Amendment) Regulations 2024, SI 2024/121, the principal changes, which are due to come into force on 8 March 2024, are that employed fathers and partners will have (a) the additional choice to take the current entitlement of up to two weeks of leave in two non-consecutive blocks of one week of leave, and (b) the ability to take leave at any time in the first year, rather than just in the first eight weeks after birth or placement for adoption. In addition, in the case of birth, the notice of intention to take leave period will be shortened to only 28 days before the dates that it is intended to take each period of leave (and pay, where they qualify). In adoption cases the period of notice will remain at 7 days from the adopter having received notice of having been matched with a child. The changes will take effect in respect of babies who are expected to be born,

A meeting of the directors of the issuer to approve the contents of the prospectus'>pathfinder prospectus ahead of its circulation.

A preliminary offering document or draft prospectus which is used to assess the level of demand from potential investors for the shares on offer. The pathfinder prospectus is an almost final version of the prospectus and normally contains an indicative price range within which the final offer price will be set.