Insights

The EPO introduced the latest version of the Guidelines for Examination on 1 March 2023. Some of the revisions are highlighted below. Removal of the ten-day notification rule Part E-II, 2.3 and 2.4 have been updated in anticipation of the abolition of the EPO’s ten-day notification rule that will take effect on 1 November 2023....

A recent decision from the EPO’s Boards of Appeal (T 0702/20) provides a practical example of where the boundary lies in terms of patent eligibility of AI algorithms at the EPO. The decision relates to a patent application for a neural network with fewer node connections, to reduce the number of computations and avoid overfitting. As...

Boult can announce that we have been once again ranked in the gold band by the WTR 1000 for 2023, their highest grade available. The WTR 1000 focuses exclusively on trade mark practice and is the definitive “go-to” resource for those seeking world-class legal trade mark expertise. Obtaining a place in the gold band acknowledges...

After years of uncertainty in the timeline of the Unified Patent Court (UPC), it has just been announced that Germany will ratify the UPC Agreement on 17th February 2023. This ratification will finally set the UPC opening date as 1st June 2023. From that date onwards, it will be possible for patent applicants to obtain...

The European Patent Office (EPO) has recently ruled that patients in a clinical trial were not members of the public such that the trial did not constitute prior public use of a pharmaceutical formulation (Board of Appeal decision T 0670/20). This decision adds to the growing body of EPO case law surrounding the topic of...