This long awaited ECJ decision concerns the interpretation of the term "embryo" in the Biotech Directive (98/44/EC). According to the Court Art. 6 (2c) of the Directive excludes the patentability of…
G2/10 – DISCLAIMERS FOR DISCLOSED SUBJECT-MATTER
by Nadja Muncke and Klemens Stratmann
On August 30, 2011 the Enlarged Board of Appeal rendered its decision on the admissibility of a disclaimer whose…
The opponent relied on a document that was distributed in a meeting arranged by himself. The Board of Appeal held that in the present case, it did not share the view of the patentee that it was…
The Opposition Division upheld a patent in a decision finding novelty over D1 and inventive step over D1 in combination with D3 or D4. The opponent filed a statement of grounds of appeal containing a…
The book ‘The Granting of European Patents’ by M. van Empel has recently been added to the (subscription) website kluwerpatentlaw.com. The book was published in 1975, was out of print within a few…
T 777/08: When is a Polymorph Inventive?
by Matthias Wolf and Alexander Dehner
We report on the recent decision T 777/08 of the Boards of Appeal of the EPO dated May 24, 2011, relating to the issue…
Since 2009, French law has allowed patentees to voluntarily limit their granted patent claims. This possibility, which has existed for a long time in a number of European countries, (e.g. Austria,…
The board refused to find a set of claims filed with the grounds of appeal admissible, because it concluded from the circumstances that the proprietor had deliberately refused to file these claims…
On 4 July 2011, the Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court published a judgment dated 10 May 2011 approved en banc (i.e. by the full Court) shedding light on two important points: (i) the scope of the…
