EPC
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
Amended rules relating to the refund of the examination fee
By AWA | Posted on August 23, 2016
Today the rules relating to fees stipulates that the examination fee will be refunded in full if the European patent application is withdrawn, refused or deemed to be withdrawn before the Examination Division (ED) has assumed responsibility of the application. The examination fee can also be refunded at a rate of 75% if the European...
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...
Introduction of fee reductions for small entities before the EPO
By Troels Peter Rørdam | Posted on May 15, 2014
Effective 1 April 2014 the Administrative Council (AC) of the EPO has changed the rules for obtaining reduction on certain fees charged in relation to the procedure before the EPO . The requirement that the applicant must be a resident of or have principal place of business is in an EPC contracting state with an...
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...
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...
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...
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