Insights

Sometimes things move very fast in UK patent law. Today, eight days after the England and Wales High Court decision overturning a refusal of a patent application, the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO) has announced, by way of statutory guidance, that: Patent Examiners should not object to inventions involving an “artificial neural network” under...

The Enlarged Board of Appeal’s recent decision in consolidated cases G1/22 and G2/22 has greatly simplified the consideration of priority entitlement at the EPO. A review of the validity of a priority claim is an essential step in the preparation of an EPO opposition. The claim can be considered in two ways. Firstly, the Opponent...

In Opposition and Appeal proceedings at the EPO, the questions of when and how to turn to the description to interpret the claims can be the turning point for whether a Patent is revoked or maintained. In T 0169/20, the Technical Board of Appeal (“the Board”) discusses the legal provisions and case law that are...

Further to our previous bulletin reporting that the EPO were now accepting electronic signatures on assignments, a recent decision by an EPO Board of Appeal (J 0005/23) brings this change into question, setting out that any assignments/licences/other agreements filed at the EPO must be hand signed by all parties for them to be recorded. A...

The EPO’s plans to abolish the 10-day notification rule will come into force on 1 November 2023. With just a month to go, here is a summary of the change. We first reported the change in our bulletin back in April 2023, which is available here. The current provisions Certain EPO communications set a period...