1. Under the current EPC system, letters from the EPO are deemed to be delivered to the addressee on the tenth day following its handover to the postal service provider. 2. The transition to electronic communications renders this rule obsolete, as delivery is much faster and generally occurs on the same day. Further, the PCT does not comprise such a 10-day delivery offset. 3. Thus, the Administrative Council of the EPO decided to abolish the 10-day rule and align the EPO system with the PCT. The new fiction for notification and time limit calculation will enter into force on November 1st, 2023.[...]

The EPO will conduct additional searches to determine earlier national rights and further determine their prima facie relevance starting September 1, 2022. The EPO already carries out a search for prior European patent applications, which are filed before, and published after, the filing date of a European patent application in question. Such earlier European patent applications are relevant for novelty in the sense of Art. 54(3) EPC. As of September 1, 2022, the EPO will further conduct systematic searches to further identify prior national rights and assess their prima facie relevance free of charge. An earlier national right is[...]

De nouvelles règles relatives aux taxes de revendication et au nombre de notifications d'examen entreront en vigueur au Canada le 3 octobre 2022.   Nombre de revendications et évolution des règles Actuellement, aucune taxe de revendication n'est due au Canada. Selon les nouvelles règles, toute revendication au-delà de vingt (20) sera soumise au paiement d'une taxe de revendication. Le nombre de revendications au moment du dépôt de la requête en examen est pris en compte pour déterminer les taxes de revendication dues à ce moment-là. Si des modifications augmentant le nombre de revendications sont apportées au cours de l'examen, le[...]

1. The European Patent Office published recently the result of a survey regarding a grace period for novelty. The EPC requires to date strict novelty for the subject matter of EP patents, rendering publication of claimed subject matter before filing of the EP patent application opposable to the patent irrespective of the question whether the publication stems from the applicant. Other jurisdictions (e.g. US and JP) provide grace period systems that permit obtaining valid patents even if the claimed subject matter was published by the applicant before filing the patent application. The survey assesses the impact of the current strict[...]

La première décision en opposition en France a été émise hier par l’INPI, dans l’affaire KRONES AG contre SIDEL PARTICIPATIONS. Dans ce cas, KRONES AG demandait la révocation totale du brevet FR 3 070 795 B1 déposé en 2018 et publié en 2020 pour plusieurs motifs parmi lesquels un défaut d’activité inventive. Ce motif a conduit à une décision de maintien du brevet FR 3 070 795 B1 sous forme modifiée. La procédure d'opposition devant l'INPI offre ainsi aux tiers une alternative plus simple et moins coûteuse que l'action judiciaire, jusqu'alors unique procédure pour contester un brevet. Elle permet aux tiers de demander la révocation[...]

Despite the pandemic filings of European patent applications increased again. 188 600 patent applications were received by European Patent Office (EPO) in 2021, which is an increase of 4.5% in comparison to the previous year. This is the highest number of applications ever filed in one year. The EPO's Patent Index 2021 shows that patent filings rebounded significantly last year after a slight dip in 2020 (-0.6%). In general the number of patent applications is seen as an early indicator of how the budgets of research and development investments of companies worldwide evolve.   Source website of EPO For applications in 2021[...]

The Committee on WIPO Standards (CWS) adopted new WIPO Standard ST.26, which represents nucleotide and amino acid sequences listings in XML, replacing WIPO Standard ST.25. The representation of sequence listings in XML format rather than TXT format intends to improve access to international sequence databases. The new standard further harmonizes sequence listing practice among patent offices and requires mandatory annotation of additional sequence types (nucleotide analogues, D-amino acids, branched sequences), so that more sequence data will be searchable. The filing date (not the priority date) is the reference date that determines if the new ST.26 rules apply. Refiling a[...]

Le 31 janvier, le gouvernement de l'Irak a déposé son instrument d'adhésion au Traité de coopération en matière de brevets (PCT) auprès du Directeur général de l'OMPI. L'Irak devient ainsi le 155e membre de l'Union du PCT. Il entrera en vigueur pour l'Irak le 30 avril 2022. À partir du 30 avril 2022, il sera ainsi possible d'obtenir une protection brevet en Irak via un dépôt PCT.

Le 25 février 2022, la Chambre de Recours à l’origine de la saisine G1/19 sur les simulations mises en œuvre par ordinateur a annoncé qu’elle émettrait sa décision écrite d’ici la fin du mois de mars 2022. Cette décision viendra clore cette affaire et illustrer une application pratique des enseignements de la saisine G1/19. Plus généralement, nous vous proposons de revenir sur la décision G1/19 qui, tout en confirmant la jurisprudence établie sur les inventions mises en œuvre par ordinateur, a introduit certaines précisions importantes, que nous aurons plaisir à vous présenter, avec quelques implications pratiques. [...]

By order of June 23, 2021, the German Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) rejected two applications for preliminary injunction against the Act of Approval that was adopted on December 18, 2020, for the purposes of ratifying the Agreement of 19 February 2013 on a Unified Patent Court (UPC Act of Approval). This decision was highly expected because the process of ratification of the UPC Act of Approval and thus, the establishment of the UPC has been delayed until the ruling of the Court. The violation of fundamental rights alleged by the plaintiffs is considered by the FFC insufficiently asserted and[...]

The EPO’s Rules relating to Fees have been amended by decision of the Administrative Council of 15 December 2021. The amended version of the Rules relating to Fees is applicable as from 1 April 2022. An evaluation of the fee adjustments indicates a general increase of about 2.5% for most fees. Raised fees concern in particular the fees for: - Filing fee (EP regional phase) : 130 EUR (increased by 5 EUR), - Filing fee (direct EP application) : 130 EURO (increased by 5 EUR), - Search fee : 1390 EUR (increased by 40 EUR), - Designation fee: 630 EUR (increased by 20 EUR),[...]

The European Patent with unitary effect (“Unified Patent”) will be introduced soon. The final stage of the preparatory work will be accomplished by the end of this summer and the final missing ratification will then be deposited by Germany. In order to give applicants the possibility to obtain Unitary patent protection for EP applications that are scheduled for grant between the deposit of the final ratification and the entering into effect of the Unified Patent, the EPO announced the following measure for deferring grant. For applications for which a notification under Rule 71(3)EPC has been issued, the applicant may[...]

Artificial intelligence system called DABUS cannot be named as inventor according to Decisions J 8/20 and J 9/20 of the Board of Appeal of the EPO Legal background Article 81 EPC stipulates that the European patent application shall designate the inventor. Article 60 defines that the right to a European patent shall belong to the inventor or his successor in title. Rule 19(1) EPC defines that the request for grant of a European patent shall contain the designation of the inventor. Present case An applicant has filed two patent applications in which an artificial intelligence system called DABUS was[...]

The Intellectual Asset Management (IAM) once again initiated a benchmarking survey and let users vote among the world's five largest patent offices for the quality of its patents and services. Again, the EPO has topped the survey this year in both categories like it has ever since this annual survey was started by IAM in 2010. The survey’s results showed that 26 % of the participants rate patents of the EPO as "excellent". This is in increase from 23% last year and places the EPO well ahead of the other IP5 offices. The respondents also agreed that the EPO[...]