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Recent Articles

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  18/04/2024

  International

  Transforming the Legal Landscape? The Impact of LLMs

  Large Language Models (LLMs) are a branch of artificial intelligence (AI) that can generate human-like text based on deep learning techniques. LLMs are trained on massive amounts of textual data, such as books, articles, and websites, and learn to recognise patterns, structures, and relationships within the data. By doing so, they develop the ability to produce text on various topics. The presence of LLMs in the legal sector is increasing and, with this, the ability of lawyers to understand and use LLMs in providing quality advice to their clients is becoming more important. CMS have a dedicated...

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  17/04/2024

  Europe

  CMS data protection update (04/2024)

  I. The latest from the data protection authorities and current topics1. EDPB: Launch of coordinated enforcement on the right of accessThe European Data Protection Board (EDPB) selected the right of access under Article 15 GDPR as the focus of the third coordinated enforcement action of the data protection authorities. Coordinated enforcement has now begun and aims to help assess how the right of access is implemented in practice and to what extent adjustments or clarifications are needed in the EDPB's Guidelines on this topic. Last year’s results of the coordinated enforcement action on the...

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  17/04/2024

  EU

  EU Commission enforces obligation to provide correct and complete information in merger control proceedings

  EU merger control law provides for an obligation of the parties to provide correct and complete information in merger control proceedings. This obligation has a very high relevance for the European Commission, as latest enforcement activities demonstrate. On 19 March 2024, the European Commission sent a Statement of Objections to an insulation panels maker alleging that the company provided incorrect, incomplete and misleading information during merger control proceedings for the company's planned acquisition of a mineral fibre sandwich panel producer.These investigations of the European Commission...

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  12/04/2024

  Europe

  Navigating clinical trial disclosures: No reasonable expectation of success in a patient sub-population in view of prior art reporting phase III clinical trial (T 1437/21)

  Recent EPO Board of Appeal decision T 1437/21 adds to a growing number of decisions concerning the patentability of second or further medical use inventions where the prior art relates to a clinical trial. At a time when the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is requiring increased transparency for EU clinical trials, this case law is of increasing importance to those operating in the pharmaceutical space.In brief, this decision further supports the position that the disclosure of a clinical trial protocol does not always mean there is a reasonable expectation of success of achieving treatment. The...

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  12/04/2024

  International

  Oil & Gas: English court restrains foreign JOA proceedings in breach of arbitration provision

  In The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited v Sunlink Energies and Resources Limited [2023] EWHC 3135 (Comm), the English Commercial Court demonstrated its willingness to ensure that a joint operating agreement’s arbitration provisions were preserved, and backed by real action by the court for a party seeking to circumvent them.BackgroundThe claimant, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (“SPDC”), and the defendant, Sunlink Energies and Resources Limited (“Sunlink”), were parties to a 2005 Joint Operating Agreement (the “JOA”)...

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  11/04/2024

  Europe

  Designs practice update: EU Court of Justice upholds Advocate General’s opinion on strict rules for design priority

  BackgroundIn our previous article (here), we discussed the opinion of Advocate General Capeta in EUIPO v The KaiKai Company Jaeger Wichmann. That opinion was provided following an appeal against the General Court’s ruling, which had held that the 12-month patent priority period could be applied to an EU design application claiming priority from a prior-filed PCT.By way of background, the European Intellectual Property Office (“EUIPO”) had rejected a priority claim by KaiKai Company for a Community Design application based on an earlier PCT patent, on the basis that it exceeded...

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