The European Patent Office ("EPO") currently requires applicants to adapt descriptions to allowable claims. This practice is risky, expensive, and not clearly grounded in the law....more
While the genus antibody claim was effectively killed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Amgen v. Sanofi, it lives on in Europe despite a few recent setbacks at the European Patent Office ("EPO") and the Unified Patent Court...more
The European Patent Office ("EPO") has committed to specific timelines for its new practice of accelerating opposition proceedings....more
The UPC, a single patent court for European Union Member States, has published the first statistics on its case load since its establishment in 2023. Between June 1, 2023, and January 31, 2024, a total of 196 cases were filed...more
The Background: There has been a growing trend to invalidate European patents by challenging their formal priority and using intervening prior art. The Technical Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office ("EPO") referred...more
In Short -
The Situation: With the introduction of the Unified Patent Court ("UPC") system in Europe, the co-ownership of patents will have material effect on patents with unitary effect ("Unitary Patent")....more
Multiple reports reliably suggest that the European Patent Office ("EPO") will end the "10-day rule" for calculating deadlines on November 1, 2023. Thereafter, deadlines will be simply calculated on the basis of the date...more
The Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office has decided that the exclusion from patentability of essentially biological processes for the production of plants or animals now also extends to plant or animal...more
Oral proceedings before examining divisions ("EDs") of the European Patent Office ("EPO") will now be held by videoconference pursuant to the April 1, 2020, decision by the EPO president. The decision applies to all oral...more
The BoA has been divergent regarding whether in an internal priority situation, the applicant would have a legitimate interest in a second patent protecting the same subject matter.
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The Situation: A recent decision by the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office confirmed that a 2011 ruling dealing with disclosed disclaimers does not overrule its 2004 decision applying to undisclosed...more
In December, we reported that the European Commission ("Commission") had issued an Interpretive Notice (2016/C 411/03) stating products produced by essentially biological processes should not be patentable. The notice came as...more
7/17/2017
/ Biologics ,
Biotechnology ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
European Patent Convention ,
European Patent Office ,
Genetically Engineered Animals ,
Patent Applications ,
Patent-Eligible Subject Matter ,
Patents ,
Plant Patents ,
Product Exclusivity ,
Subject Matter Conflicts ,
The Enlarged Board of Appeals
Beginning in 2009, the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office ("EPO") issued a series of decisions that essentially created a new priority law in Europe that allowed members of the same patent family to negate each...more
3/16/2017
/ EU ,
European Patent Convention ,
European Patent Office ,
Novelty ,
Paris Convention ,
Patent Portfolios ,
Patents ,
Priority Date Cutoff ,
Priority Patent Claims ,
Subject Matter Conflicts ,
The Enlarged Board of Appeals