Splitting trial between IPO and court "unsatisfactory and wasteful"

Angle Ring Ltd v ASD Westok Ltd is an extempore ruling of Judge Richard Hacon, sitting earlier this week in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC), England and Wales. The decision is briefly noted on the Lawtel subscriber-only service.

This was an dispute involving the ownership and validity of three patents in which the defendant Westok applied for summary judgment in respect of Angle's patent ownership claim.  Angle, the first claimant, asserted that Westok had never been the true inventors of the patents and had at all times known, or had reasonable grounds to know, that the second claimant was the true inventor. Although the IPEC would be able to deal with lack of inventive step or novelty at trial, the claimants failed to make a pro forma application to the UK Intellectual Property Office (the IPO, which has the initial jurisdiction to deal with claims relating to ownership of patents and patent applications) to have the matter transferred to the IPEC, leaving an issue as to whether the court had jurisdiction to deal with entitlement.

Westok submitted that there were no reasonable grounds for it to have known that the second claimant was the true inventor, and that the court should determine that there was no real prospect of concluding that it must have known that it was not entitled to the patents.

Richard Hacon refused the application. In his view:

* The allegation that Westok had had reasonable grounds for knowing that the second claimant was the true inventor was irrelevant. It was fair to infer from the pleading that the claimants had alleged that Westok had known that it was not entitled to the patents, and the court would have to determine whether Westok knew that it was not so entitled.

* It was not appropriate to go through the evidence in a mini-trial of whether the claimants' case was unarguable; it had been pleaded sufficiently and should go to trial.

* The claimants would find it difficult to adduce further evidence if it turned out that the existing evidence did not support its case that Westok had had the relevant knowledge, and Westok would therefore succeed at trial on that point.

* The court ought to exercise its inherent jurisdiction in order to deal with entitlement at trial. It was artificial to distinguish the matter of lack of inventive step or novelty and leave entitlement to the IPO. That would be unsatisfactory and wasteful.