Patent Baristas

Following our updates on the proposed change to the divisional deadline rule (Sept 2013 & Oct 2013), the EPO Administrative Council has now confirmed that this change will become law. From 1 April 2014, the new divisional rule will allow applicants to file a divisional application from any pending European patent application.  This change takes […]

From Dr. Matthew Barton, a UK Chartered Patent Attorney and European Patent Attorney at Forresters: We have learnt that the EPO has made formal proposals to remove the current two-year time limit for filing divisionals. At the present time applicants may only file voluntary divisionals within two years from the first examination report in a family of […]

A process which involves removal of a stem cell from a human embryo at the blastocyst stage, entailing the destruction of that embryo, cannot be patented. Last week the Court of Justice of the European Union issued a judgment in the case of Brüstle v Greenpeace e.V (Case C 34/10) in which it banned the […]

The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg ruled against Monsanto Co. stating that “Monsanto cannot prohibit the marketing in the EU of soy meal containing, in a residual state, a [patented] DNA sequence.” Therefore, the European patent for the trait that makes soybeans resistant to the company’s Roundup herbicide doesn’t extend to soy meal made […]

If an authority grants two patents for the same invention to the same applicant, that is double patenting. In most European states the law requires that one of the patents must cease. Since it started, the European Patent Office (EPO) official view has been that it should not allow double patenting. The Guidelines for Examination […]

There is a new blog setting out information about patent goings-on in Europe.  According to the EPLAW Patent Blog, it  aims to be a top-quality, free, independent European blog on patent law, providing speedy access to patent judgments and patent information from various European jurisdictions. In its coverage of the recent UK case, Neurim Pharmaceuticals […]

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 […]

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 […]