Insights

Assignment documents filed electronically may now be signed using ‘qualified electronic signatures’. Previously Previously, assignments, licences and other agreements for recordal were only accepted by the EPO if they had been executed using an original hand signature (though scanned copies were, and still are, sufficient for filing). Now At the end of last year, the...

The EPO have announced their upcoming amendments of the Guidelines for Examination which will enter into force on 1 March 2022. A number of notable amendments to the Guidelines are scheduled; we will follow with more detailed discussions regarding the changes to Description Amendments and Electronic Signatures of Assignments, whereas here we will look at...

The Provisional Application Phase (PAP) of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) has finally started! Austria deposited their ratification of the PAP-Protocol on 18 January 2022, taking the number of ratifications to thirteen, as required for entry into force of this Protocol. This is the first of two steps required for the UPC to become operational....

Ever since the Supreme Court shook up the patent landscape in the UK with their decision in Actavis v Eli Lilly there has been an open question regarding how the newly enlarged patent scope which encompasses equivalents interacted with validity and third-party certainty. Prior to Actavis, the Gillette defence or Gillette principle was often referred to....

The Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office has been challenged with a new referral (G2/21) concerning the admissibility of post-published evidence for the assessment of inventive step. The outcome of this referral could have significant consequences for the assessment of patentability at the European Patent Office, particularly for inventions in the fields...