UPC Decision

January 11, 2024By Julia D'ArcyPatents, Unitary Patent Court

A recent decision of the Munich Local Division of the UPC in SES vs. Hanshow provides a first indication of how the UPC will interpret patent claim interpretation. Surprisingly, the Munich Local Division of the UPC considered both the original claims and the prosecution history in interpreting the granted claims. This approach is not supported by either EPO … Read More

Presumption of Entitlement to Claim Priority

October 13, 2023By Julia D'ArcyEPO, Patents

The EPO Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBA) recently answered questions referred under consolidated cases G 1/22 and G 2/22, and has introduced a welcome relaxation in practice in the assessment of the validity of a priority claim. The EBA found the EPO to be competent to assess whether a party is entitled to claim priority, … Read More

Abolition of the 10 Day Rule

October 12, 2023By Julia D'ArcyEPO, Patents

The “10-day” rule, which determines how the response deadlines to certain European Patent Office (EPO) communications are calculated, is to be abandoned from 1 November 2023. The 10 day rule was introduced to compensate for postal delays but is no longer considered necessary since most documents are issued electronically. Communications issued from 1 November 2023 … Read More

Confidentiality of Medical Trials

February 6, 2023By Julia D'ArcyEPO, Patents

The confidentiality of medical trials was examined in recent EPO board of appeal case T 0670/20. During phase IIa and IIb clinical trials conducted prior to the filing of patent application EP2140867, tablets of anti-blood clot agent edoxaban were distributed. Under European law, is not necessary to show that a disclosure has in fact taken … Read More

Hindsight in Assessment of Inventive Step

January 27, 2023By Julia D'ArcyPatents, Prior Art

The EPO favours the problem-solution approach in the assessment of inventive step. This involves identifying the closest prior art, as the prior art document that provides the most promising starting point for an obviousness attack. However, the step of identification of the closest prior art in the problem-solution approach creates a potential tension with one of … Read More