Thorsten Bausch

Today (20 January 2021) seems to be a perfect day to celebrate democracy and the rule of law. I will therefore not keep you up for too long, but just wanted to make a short personal comment and a…

While it is my impression that the IP profession, on the whole, has not had to suffer much under the current COVID-19 pandemic, the same is unfortunately not true for our patent attorney trainees. It…

So the consultation of the public by the Boards of Appeal has ended today. It will be interesting to see the results and the impact, if any, they will have on the final wording of Art. 15a EPC. In…

Let's start with a bit of etymology today. The official translation of "European Patent Office" into German is "Europäisches Patentamt", the latter obviously being a composite of Patent and Amt.The…

In these days and times, we are constantly reminded how important and how endangered seemingly simple concepts are such as truth, facts, science and trust. Hannah Arendt, the famous Jewish German…

Searching the EPO’s website for the terms “user-friendly” and/or “user friendliness” will result in your screen being flooded by hits describing the remarkable achievements and ongoing efforts by the…

As is well known, not least since Mark Twain’s famous and unforgettable analysis, the Awful German Language is full of funny compound words (actually, according to Mark Twain, “they are not words,…

As readers of this blog will be aware, the EPO applies a quite peculiar and unique method to the analysis of inventive step, the "problem-solution approach". This approach breaks the statutory…

By now, the decision by the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) voiding the German law approving the ratification of the UPC Agreement has gone viral in the patent world, though fortunately not…