Insights

Previously, the main obstacle to implementation of the Unified Patent Court and Unitary Patent system was the ratification of the UPC Agreement by Germany: German ratification was significantly delayed by a pending case at the German Constitutional Court which is scheduled for decision later in 2019. However, even if the decision of the German Constitutional...

As recently announced by the University of Surrey, a group of patent applications have been filed at the UK patent office and European Patent Office toward inventions allegedly solely created by an Artificial Intelligence. Legal questions surrounding patents for AI are not new – patent offices around the world are already grappling with the patentable...

The Rules of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal (RPBA) have recently been updated. There has been a wide-scale revision of the rules, with both case management and substantive features of the appeal procedure being revised. The new RPBA will come into force on 1st January, 2020. In recent years, the case law of the...

A new Referral to the Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBA) has been submitted by the President of the EPO concerning the patentability of plants and animals obtained exclusively by essentially biological processes, G3/19. This Referral follows Technical Board of Appeal decision T1063/18, a case concerning the patentability of plants obtained by an essentially biological process....

Key features of the Patent Box The Patent Box is an IP-related tax relief scheme for innovative companies that make a profit from patented inventions and are subject to UK corporation tax. The Patent Box regime aims to encourage innovative companies to locate, commercialise and retain their research and development in the UK. Under the...