Judgment of the Federal Patent Court on the right to claim priority

In line with the decision "Cinacalcet II" (U 25/20), the fourth Senate of the Federal Patent Court considers the priority claim of a joint international patent application by applicants of the priority application and further applicants to be formally valid solely as a result of the joint application. Even if one were to regard the international subsequent application as a bundle of subsequent applications for different states merely outwardly combined in a single document, a succession in title for the non-applicants of the priority application would then follow from the joint international application directed to different areas of protection. The judgment emphasizes that this result is in line with the decision of the Federal Supreme Court in the case "Drahtloses Kommunikationsnetz" (X ZR 14/17), as the latter does not exclude such an implied transfer of the priority right.

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