Patent Baristas

The European Patent Office (“EPO”) recently announced that most of its fees will increase by between 5 and 8 per cent from April 1, 2010.  A summary of the new fees is shown here.
What does this all mean to you?
If you know that you want to enter the European regional phase of a PCT application, [...]

The therapeutic use of that substance cannot be patented because that use is a method of treatment of a human or animal body by surgery, therapy or diagnosis which is practiced on that human or animal body.
Methods of treatment are regarded in Europe as not being capable of industrial application and are consequently not patentable.  [...]

The EPO Enlarged Board of Appeal handed down its decision relating to the interpretation of the exclusion for patentability under article 53(c) EPC “method for treatment of the human or animal body by surgery”. Questions were asked to the Enlarged Board in a case about a medical imaging method, whereby a contrast agent was injected [...]

The Administrative Council of the EPO decided, in March 2009, to make significant changes to the Implementing Rules of the European Patent Convention (EPC). These changes will enter into force on April 1, 2010 and will have a significant impact on the grant procedure before the EPO.
Introduction of a new time limit for filing divisional [...]

The European Patent Office (EPO) has announced more important rule changes, as part of its drive to speed up prosecution without apparently requiring any more from its examiners.  The new rules will come into force on 1 April 2010.
Of particular note is that two of the new rule changes are actually beneficial to applicants!
Compulsory response [...]

There have been mutterings and papers for some time about the EPO restricting the filing of divisional applications. They were viewed by some at the EPO as a thorn in the side of 3rd party rights.
It is now official – the EPO Administrative Council met 26 March 2009 and considered the filing of divisional [...]

On April 1, the European Patent Office changes the fee structure for filing applications and entering the European regional phase of PCT applications. For most applicants, this will mean an overall increase in fees paid.
What are the changes?

There will now be a single designation fee of €500, irrespective of the number of states designated. This [...]

The Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office gave a second (and final!) rejection of the human embryonic stem cell patent by University of Wisconsin’s Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF). See Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, Case Number: G 0002/06.
Deciding that it would be against the “public order” to grant the patent since it [...]