ISRAEL Law and Practice Contributed by: Eran Bareket, Reinhold Cohn Group
sary, the Registrar is aided by one of the exam- iners. A district court trying an infringement action may appoint an expert. The court-appointed expert may be cross-examined by both parties (plaintiff and defendant). The default rule is that a court-appointed expert renders parties’ expert opinions inadmissible. Pending final judgment, the parties will typically be ordered to share the costs of the court-appointed expert. The district court also has the power to appoint an assessor (a scientific advisor) who assists the judge in taking evidence and may render advice to the judge, but shall not take part in rendering the judgment. The costs for the court-appointed scientific advisor are paid by the State Treasury. 3.7 Procedure for Construing the Terms of the Patent’s Claim In Israel, there is no claim construction hear- ing (“Markman hearing”) in which the judge examines the evidence of the parties in order to understand the appropriate meaning of the key words of the patent claims. 3.8 Procedure for Third-Party Opinions There are two main procedures for which the court can receive third-party opinions. First, receiving a third-party opinion as an ami- cus brief. The tool “amicus brief” was not rec- ognised in Israeli law until 1999. In that year, in the Kozli case, the court allowed a body that was not a formal party to the proceedings to submit summations in the status of an amicus brief for the first time. Today, the courts have the author- ity to allow individuals, entities and institutions that are not formal parties to a legal proceeding to present their position before the court, subject to obtaining permission from the court.
Secondly, receiving an opinion by the Attorney General (AG). As part of their role of safeguard- ing the public interest, the AG is authorised to join any proceedings as a representative of the state, provided that a public right or public inter- est is involved in it.
4. Revocation/Cancellation 4.1 Reasons and Remedies for Revocation/Cancellation
Any person may file an application with the Pat- ent Office to revoke a granted patent, and stand- ing to sue is not required. The grounds for filing a revocation application are identical to the grounds for filing an opposi- tion. An application for revocation may be filed at any time and the statute of limitation does not apply. The Registrar may accept the application (and revoke the patent), deny the application or allow the application partially (eg, by deleting/narrow- ing some of the claims). If the revocation appli- cation is allowed, the patent will be deemed as if it was never granted. The patentee is entitled to request cancellation of a granted patent (as distinguished from a rev- ocation thereof). If such a request is allowed, the patent will cease to be in force from the date of cancellation. Any person may oppose a request for cancellation and require that the patent be revoked. 4.2 Partial Revocation/Cancellation Partial revocation may occur following an appli- cation for partial revocation, or following a revo- cation application that has been only partially accepted.
270 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook