Archive - November 2016

The Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBoA) of the European Patent Office (EPO) has today indicated in case G1/15 that the so-called issue of “poisonous divisionals” has been put to rest.  The background context to this is that there had been concerns that it might be legally possible for a divisional patent application to be held […]

At the EU competitiveness council meeting today the UK Minister of State for Energy and Intellectual Property, Baroness Neville-Rolfe, indicated that the UK will ratify the Unified Patent Court Agreement (see official press release here). UPC specialist and W&R Partner Russell Barton said: “We, at Withers & Rogers, are delighted the UK government has chosen […]

The Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys (ITMA), the organisation, which represents the interests of the trade mark and design profession will be changing its name with effect from Thursday 24 November. Going forward the organisation will be known as The Chartered Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys (CITMA) following the grant of a Royal Charter back […]

In most jurisdictions a patent will not be granted until it has been examined and approved by the relevant patent office. This examination process is referred to as ‘patent prosecution’ and often entails multiple rounds of Examination Reports issued by the patent office and ‘responses’ filed on behalf of the patent applicant. Consequently, the patent […]

The contribution made by IP-led industries to the European economy has increased according to a second EU-wide study published by the European Patent Office (EPO) and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). The study has revealed that industries described as ‘IPR-intensive’ – those that file a high number of Community Trade Marks, Registered Design […]

When it comes to amending the scope of protection of your claims, the European Patent Office applies very strict requirements that any new scope of protection sought must have already been directly and unambiguously disclosed somewhere in the application as filed. There is one exception to this rule, undisclosed disclaimers.  They are ‘undisclosed’ because the […]