News
The enlarged board of appeal adds clarity
2 April 2015Read more >The Enlarged Board of Appeal has recently given guidance on the extent to which amendments should be examined for clarity in EPO opposition proceedings in its decision G 3/14 (see here). In a decision that will be welcomed by patent proprietors (but not opponents), the Enlarged Board decided that the clarity of an amendment to […]
Practical advice for protecting software
27 March 2015Read more >In addition to protecting software functionality through obtaining patents, it is also advisable to take the following steps to help deter and or prove copying of your code: • Machine code distribution The distribution only of machine code executed directly by a computer’s processor avoids the need to present higher level code that is more […]
Medical devices left out in the cold
12 March 2015Read more >A recent decision from the EPO has confirmed that medical devices cannot be protected using second medical use claims. T773/10 concerns an appeal from an Examination Division decision to refuse a patent application for a dialysis membrane. The membrane itself was known. The applicant was attempting to get patent protection based on its new use […]
US & Japan set to join the Hague System
16 February 2015Read more >The Hague System is administered by the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) and allows a single registered design application to be made that can designate several countries, instead of filing separate design applications in multiple countries. On 13 February 2015 the US and Japan will deposit their instruments of accession (by the Geneva Act of […]
Patentable Parthenotes
12 February 2015Read more >In decision C-364/13 the CJEU classified human parthenotes, the result of artificially stimulating human egg cells to divide, as being outside the definition of embryos. This means that parthenotes, and the stem cells that form them, are not excluded from patent protection by the European Biotechnology Directive. Ethical issues reign over questions of whether the […]
A new patent eligibility test from the USPTO – a step in the right direction?
10 February 2015Read more >The USPTO has recently issued guidelines for deciding whether a claim is eligible for US patent protection. The guidelines are welcomed by those considering patenting computer-implemented inventions in the US because they clarify the brief and unclear guidance issued shortly after the US Supreme Court’s Alice Corp. v. CLS bank International decision of 19 June […]
