EPO Decision

In J 1/24, Board 3.1.01 (the Legal Board of Appeal) surprised many practitioners by treating a divisional filed after the publication of the mention of the grant as validly filed. As this went…

EPO practice on added matter is well known to be strict, with many patents being revoked using this principle every year. Particularly tricky during EPO opposition proceedings is the “inescapable…

In patent law, the concept of “prior art” or “state of the art” describes the universe of information which existed and was made available to the public by means of a written or oral description, by…

T 1913/21 has received attention for nicely illustrating the difference between process claims and second non-medical use claims —a category of claims shaped by landmark Enlarged Board decisions G 2…

In less than 15 days, the Enlarged Board of Appeals (“EBA”) handed down two major decisions in relation to patent validity: (i) one relating to claim construction when assessing the patentability of…

 G 1/24 has now been issued, and concludes “The description and any drawings are always referred to when interpreting the claims, and not just in the case of unclarity or ambiguity.” With this simple…

Defining antibodies by functional features is not always straightforward at the EPO. T326/22 is a nice example of how this can be achieved.       To briefly recap the standard EPO approach, an…

One critical factor in developing generative AI is access to a large amount of well-structured data. As such, the EPO is sitting on a goldmine when it comes to AI tools for patent law. I was…

The festive period normally leads to a slight slow-down in work in Europe and as such, it can provide the opportunity to catch up on wider reading as well as to grab a little rest.  In between the…