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Actavis UK Ltd v Eli Lilly & Co

[2017] UKSC 48
JurisdictionUnited Kingdom
CourtUK Supreme Court
Year2017
StatusBinding authority

Summary

UKSC reformulated patent infringement by equivalents: variant infringes if it achieves substantially the same result in the same way, obviously so, and patentee did not intend strict literal compliance.

Key Principle

Lord Neuberger reformulated the test for patent infringement by equivalents: (1) does the variant achieve substantially the same result in substantially the same way, (2) would this have been obvious to the skilled person, (3) would the skilled person have understood the patentee intended strict compliance with the literal meaning.

Area of Law

ip

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