Understanding Patent Applications and Methods for Best Approaches in Europe and the U.S.
The Unified Patent Court (UPC) is revolutionizing the way patents are enforced in Europe, and McDermott’s intellectual property team is here to help you navigate this dynamic landscape. Our Legal Lens on the Unified Patent...more
On February 7, 2024, the European Parliament approved the draft regulating plants obtained by certain new genomic techniques (NGT) like CRISPR-Cas. The members of the European Parliament (MEPs) voted to divide NGT plants into...more
The European Patent Office ("EPO") has committed to specific timelines for its new practice of accelerating opposition proceedings....more
The European Parliament has adopted an amended European Commission proposal to regulate plants engineered using techniques such as CRISPR/Cas and ban any patenting of plants, plant parts, material, genetic information, or...more
Compulsory licensing is a practice that allows a third party to produce or use a patented product or process without the consent of the patent owner. The practice may be implemented to ensure patent owners are utilizing the...more
Challenges to the validity of the “Patent Cooperation Treaty joint applicant” have been a problem for many applicants at the European Patent Office. On October 10, 2023, the EPO’s highest authority, the Enlarged Board of...more
The Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) has issued a new dual decision – G1/22 and G2/22 – dealing with the assessment of priority rights at the EPO. The decision represents a significant break from...more
On October 10, 2023, the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) issued a consolidated decision in cases G1/22 and G2/22 clarifying a common issue regarding the validity of a priority claim made at the...more
Background - As has been widely reported, major changes are looming for the European patent landscape. After many years of preparatory work and negotiations, Europe’s new Unified Patent Court (UPC) is expected to open for...more
On February 17, 2023 Germany has deposited its instrument of ratification of the Unified Patent Agreement making it definite that the agreement will come into effect on June 1, 2023 and that the sunrise period will commence...more
In 1973, in response to concerns about the costs of securing patent protection in Europe, the European Patent Convention was signed to set up a common patent office to examine patent applications for any European country that...more
A major change to the European patent system is expected in 2023. Currently, patent owners: 1) validate European patents in individual States, 2) pay renewal fees, and 3) enforce the patent independently in each individual...more
The Unitary Patent system in Europe has been a long time coming. Started in December 2012 by regulations approved by the European Parliament, it will finally apply with the entry into force of the Unified Patent Court (UPC)...more
Seven years after the Member States of the EU signed the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (“UPCA”), the Unitary Patent (“UP”) and the Unified Patent Court (“UPC”) are likely to commence during the second half of 2022. This...more
Article 84 of the European Patent Convention (EPC) requires that the claims of a European patent application “shall define the matter for which protection is sought” and “shall be clear and concise and be supported by the...more
The EPO confirmed that a European patent application can be refused on the basis of double patenting under Articles 97(2) and 125 EPC, if a patent with the same effective date has already been granted for the same subject...more
On February 10, 2020, the European Patent Office Opposition Division announced the results of an opposition filed against patent EP2800811, owned by the Regents of University of California, University of Vienna, and Emanuelle...more
European and UK patents are not impacted by Brexit. The European Patent Office (EPO) is established under the European Patent Convention (EPC). The EPC is separate from the European Union and the UK is, now, one of several...more
The Guidelines for Examination in the European Patent Office (EPO) permit the use of post-filing experimental data in a limited manner to support the scope of objected claims. However, reliance on post-filing data differs...more
On 30 July, the Court of Appeal of The Hague ruled on the formal entitlement to priority following from a US provisional patent application. The attack on priority in this case is part of a recent trend by parties in patent...more
Last month, the European Patent Office (EPO) issued the much anticipated Written Decision associated with case T1063/18. We have previously written about this case in our alert "EPO May Return to Patenting Plants Obtained by...more
On December 5, 2018, a Technical Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) announced that a recently introduced rule, which prohibits the grant of patents in respect of plants or animals exclusively obtained by...more
On 24 September 2018, the UK Government outlined its position on how the various Intellectual Property (IP) rights will be treated following "Brexit Day" – planned for 29 March 2019, in the unlikely event that the United...more
We salute the originators and implementers of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) and the European Patent Convention (EPO) on their fortieth anniversary and look forward to continued use of both long into the future....more
The Situation: In European patent law, opposition against a patent grant can be based only on particular grounds, with one of the grounds being insufficiency of disclosure, meaning that the invention is not disclosed clearly...more