EPO

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EPO launches new PPH agreements with New Zealand and Bahrain

By Troels Peter Rørdam | Posted on March 20, 2025

The PPH network continues to expand, and we at AWA remain one step ahead by closely monitoring the new expansions and emerging opportunities. Recently, European patent applicants have been presented with new opportunities to expedite and simplify the examination of their patent applications. This opportunity adds to the existing 15 agreements that the EPO holds...

Tags: Bahrain, EPO, New Zealand, patents, PPH

Companies with IP generate at least 23.8% more revenue according to latest EU report

By AWA | Posted on February 5, 2025

The report ‘The Intellectual Property Rights and Firm Performance in the European Union’ was published last month and analyses intellectual property records by matching firms with their registered patents, trademarks, and designs from multiple authorities, including the European Patent Office (EPO), European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), and various national and regional IP offices within...

Tags: EPO, EUIPO, Intellectual Property, patents, SMEs, trademarks

Validation agreement between EPO and Georgia enters into force

By AWA | Posted on February 9, 2024

On January 15, 2024, the validation agreement between the European Patent Organisation (EPO) and Georgia entered into force. Patent owners can now validate their European patent applications and patents granted by the European Patent Office (EPO) in Georgia on the basis of Georgia’s national law. European patent applications and patents validated in Georgia under the...

Tags: EPO, Georgia, patents, Validation

EPO’s highest legal authority to decide if post-published data can support inventive step

By Michael Bech Sommer | Posted on August 17, 2021

The European Patent Office’s (EPO) highest legal authority, the Enlarged Board of Appeal, is about to be referred questions from the Board of Appeal (BoA) on whether data produced after the filing date of a patent application (post-published data) can be used as the sole basis to support the inventive step of a claim. Essentially,...

Tags: BoA, data, EPO, patents, post-filing data

EPO releases Patent Index 2020: Applications stable despite pandemic, healthcare innovation soars and the US tops geographic origin of applications outside of Europe

By AWA | Posted on March 18, 2021

The European Patent Office (EPO) released its Patent Index 2020 this week. Despite the coronavirus pandemic, filings remained stable with increases in applications from the medical technology, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. These increases helped to counter declines seen in some sectors like mechanical engineering. Top Industries As a result of the current global situation, it...

Tags: EPO, Patent Innovation Index 2020, patents

Patenting Antibody and Cell Therapies – What to Do and What Not to Do

By Joanna Applequist, Louise Jonshammar, Niklas Mattsson | Posted on September 28, 2020

Antibody drugs and cell therapies are at the heart of new biotechnology science. Not only do they show great promise when it comes to curing disease and helping patients, but also in creating value and growth. Biotech companies need to protect their scientific results and the corresponding investments with strong and durable patents. This is...

Tags: antibodies, Biotechnology, cell therapies, EPO, Litigation, patents

Clarifying the patentability of medical use inventions in China

By AWA | Posted on May 20, 2020

At the end of 2019, the new Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) emerged. It has gone on to infect millions of people worldwide and so far, claimed the lives of over a quarter of a million people. COVID-19 has disrupted the world economy like never before. At the same time, it has brought unprecedented global attention to disease...

Tags: china, CNIPA, EPO, Gilead, inventions, JPO, medical use, patents, Remdesivir

EPO rules plants and animals exclusively obtained by essentially biological processes not patentable

By AWA | Posted on May 18, 2020

It has been clear that essentially biological processes for the production of plants or animals are explicitly excluded from patentability under Article 53(b) EPC. However, patentability of products of the essentially biological processes, such as plants and animals, has been questioned and repeatedly visited by the Enlarged Board of Appeal in recent years. On 14...

Tags: animals, biological, Board of Appeal, EPO, interpretation, patents, plants

The Crispr-Cas9 patent tussle continues: The case of UC Berkeley at the EPO

By Joanna Applequist | Posted on November 15, 2019

In Europe, we don’t do things the way the Americans do… Oral proceedings in the opposition against UC Berkeley’s (UC’s) main European patent EP2800811 are scheduled for all of three (!) days in February of 2020 at the European Patent Office (EPO). The opposition division’s (OD’s) preliminary and non-binding opinion, provided on the 30th of...

Tags: crispr-cas9, DNA, EPO, invention, patents, UC Berkley

Denmark champions patents as fundamental to preventing climate change

By AWA | Posted on September 26, 2019

Danish Minister for Industry, Business and Financial Affairs Simon Kollerup stated that protecting the intellectual property rights of innovative green companies is essential. Kollerup’s comments come as a Joint Report from the European Patent Office (EPO) and European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) published on IPR-intensive industries and economic performance in the European Union. The...

Tags: CCMT, climate-change, Denmark, EPO, EUIPO, green innovations, green transition, patents

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