Under the 1977 Patents Act there are provisions which mean that in some circumstances public disclosures in breach of confidence do not count as prior art against a patent. The problem faced by Mr Wang was that the relevant section ( s 2(4) ) only appears to exclude disclosures in breach of confidence which took place within six months of the filing date of the UK application. Thus in this case and on that basis, even if he is right and the Ningbo disclosures were in breach of confidence (and I emphasise Ningbo do not agree), the disclosures would still be relevant prior art despite the breach of confidence. Mr Wang chose not to contest the point and on 30th April 2012 I made an order by consent which disposed of the patent action. The order was for revocation of the UK patent. The defendant had accepted that the UK patent was invalid. I note that Mr Wang does not accept that a Chinese patent he holds, which matured from the original Chinese application in 2009, would be invalid.