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
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
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
For the past few years there has been fear that the law on priority claims in the European Patent Office (EPO) could result in a divisional application becoming prior art against its parent if the divisional application...more
Unitary patents in Europe - The European unitary patent and Unitary Patent Court (UPC) are slated to go into effect in early 2017. These monumental changes will have a significant impact on the ways patent rights are...more
According to a recent survey of over 100 companies and universities, nearly 93% who filed patent families in 2013 filed at least some of those patent families internationally. While obtaining patent protection abroad is...more
Patents are Obtained Country by Country - All intellectual property professionals are aware that patents are issued, as a general rule, country by country. However, some inventors are under the misimpression that once...more
U.S. exports hit a record high of $188.7 billion in December 2012. This is part of a long (albeit inconsistent) trend of growing exports, which goes back to the early 1990s and has been particularly strong and steady since...more