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Sweden’s Proposed Patents Act

By Louise Jonshammar | Posted on April 19, 2024

On 11 April 2024, the Swedish Council on Legislation was presented with a new Swedish Patents Act proposal. The initial Swedish Government Official Report dates from April 2015 and was the product of a two-and-a-half-year project that included many concerns regarding the Unitary Patent system. The suggested legislative changes from the 2015 report have already...

Tags: EPC, patents, Patents Act, sweden

Referral to the Enlarged Board of Appeal regarding negative features in a claim (i.e. disclaimers).

By AWA | Posted on November 3, 2016

The use of undisclosed disclaimers in a filed application has been practiced since the start of the EPC (European Patent Convention) and was codified in G 1/03. According to this decision, three exceptions from the general principle (a patent or patent application may not be amended in such a way that it contains subject-matter which...

Tags: applications, awapatent, EBA, epa, EPC

Exclusive competence of the UPC – is it time to develop opt-out strategies?

By AWA | Posted on January 25, 2016

The Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (UPCA), “the Court”, will enter into force four months after the 13th Contracting Member State has deposited its instrument of ratification. This date has been gradually moved forward from the beginning of January 2014. It is now anticipated for early 2017. Immediately upon its entry into force of...

Tags: EPC, European Patent Convention, SPC, unified patent court, UPCA

European patent validation in Morocco and Tunisia

By Troels Peter Rørdam | Posted on October 31, 2014

Recently, the EPO has initiated work on a new interesting possibility for European patent applicants. Namely, the EPO has reported having signed an agreement with the Tunisian government on the validation of European patents for Tunisia. A similar agreement has previously, in 2013, been signed with the Moroccan government. According to the agreements, European patents...

Tags: EPC, EPO, Europe, Morocco, Patent, Tunisia

Claiming a non-therapeutic use with inseparably associated therapeutic effect

By AWA | Posted on January 9, 2012

A use of a substance or composition for the treatment of humans by therapy is excluded from patentability according to the EPC Article 53(c). However, claiming a non-therapeutic use of a substance or composition may still fall under this same exclusion if the non-therapeutic use is inseparably associated with a therapeutic use. This was confirmed...

Tags: claim, EPC, technical board of appeal

Software inventions: The BGH confirms examination approach

By AWA | Posted on June 22, 2011

By its judgment in X ZR 121/09 (Webseitenanzeige), the German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) recently nullified one of Siemens AG’s German patents (English-language version) for lacking technical character. The judgment can be said to belong to the same lineage as Xa ZB 20/08 (Dynamische Dokumentengenerierung), which was reported in AWA IP Review 2/2010, and...

Tags: Attorney, BGH, EPC, Europe, Patent, Software

EPO’s fight against divisional applications

By AWA | Posted on February 10, 2009

EPO is seeking to limit the submission of divisional applications, which would be a severe blow to small, newly started technical companies in particular. Although a stop was put to their latest proposal by the Committee on Patent Law, it is highly likely that despite this setback we will see a modified version put before...

Tags: EPC, EPO, Patent

Recent contributors

Laura Stravinskaite

Laura Stravinskaite

Senior Associate, Attorney at Law

Ai-Leen Lim

Ai-Leen Lim

Partner, Attorney at Law, Group Vice President

Ashley Zhao

Ashley Zhao

Partner, Attorney at Law, Business Area Manager

Troels Peter Rørdam

Troels Peter Rørdam

Senior Counsel, European Patent Attorney

Mikkel Roed Trier

Mikkel Roed Trier

Partner, European Patent Attorney, UPC Representative, Business Area Manager