Practice

In earlier proceedings, judgment was handed down in respect of a patent concerning relocation of a protocol termination point in a mobile phone system (the patent), in which it was held that patent was valid and was essential to the relevant telecommunications standards. Prior to the order being sealed. The defendant company applied for permission to reopen the trial, to amend the pleadings to plead new prior art against the validity of the patent and to have a further trial about that new prior art. It sought an order suspending sealing of the order due to be made until the application was heard. The Patents Court, applying settled law, ruled that, in all the circumstances, the trial would not be re-opened. The order would be sealed and there would be no stay of patent trials fixed for June.