Understanding Patent Applications and Methods for Best Approaches in Europe and the U.S.
The European Patent Office (EPO) provides reductions to many of the official fees due during the grant procedure of a European patent application. These reductions can significantly reduce the total costs of bringing a...more
A major change to the European patent system is expected in 2023. Currently, patent owners: 1) validate European patents in individual States, 2) pay renewal fees, and 3) enforce the patent independently in each individual...more
Seven years after the Member States of the EU signed the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (“UPCA”), the Unitary Patent (“UP”) and the Unified Patent Court (“UPC”) are likely to commence during the second half of 2022. This...more
Article 84 of the European Patent Convention (EPC) requires that the claims of a European patent application “shall define the matter for which protection is sought” and “shall be clear and concise and be supported by the...more
On December 5, 2018, a Technical Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) announced that a recently introduced rule, which prohibits the grant of patents in respect of plants or animals exclusively obtained by...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
We have previously noted that assignments executed solely by the assignor (e.g., an inventor when assigning rights to their employer) are technically deficient in Europe due to a difference between U.S. and European law. In...more
The process of Brexit will take many years, and the implications for our clients’ business will unfold over time. Our MoFo Brexit Task Force is coordinating Brexit-related legal analysis across all of our offices, and...more