SONN Patentanwälte – IP Attorneys

  1. The patentability of computer simulations before the European Patent Office

    The computer simulation of physical processes has found its way into wide areas of the economy. The decision G 1/19 now clarified the question under which conditions such a simulation can be patented. An article by our partner Fabian Stanke together with colleague Michael Stadler in this entry for the...

  2. Patent claims are allowed to be speculative to a certain extent

    Claims in patent applications typically involve generalisations which inherently include an aspect of speculation. Patent applications in the field of medicine represent in this respect no exception. The approaches developed in the jurisprudence of the Boards of Appeal of the EPO for the assessment...

  3. Computer-implemented simulations are patentable under certain conditions

    In the context of assessing inventive step, a computer-implemented simulation of a technical system or process that is claimed as such can solve a technical problem by producing a technical effect going beyond the simulation’s implementation on a computer. For that assessment it is not a sufficient...

  4. Animal suffering not balanced by the benefit to mankind

    It must be examined in each case whether the benefit of an invention to mankind is so great that it weighs up animal suffering caused in the production of the subject matter of the invention. The commercial exploitation of the invention of a pharmaceutical preparation is contrary to public policy or...

  5. EPO case law: Weather simulations as such are not technical

    The "weather" is not a technical system that the skilled person can improve, or even simulate with the purpose of trying to improve it. It is a physical system that can be modelled in the sense of showing how it works. This kind of modelling is rather a discovery or a scientific theory, which are excluded...

  6. EPO case law: patentability of implants

    A device defined by a feature which can only be generated by a surgical or therapeutic step (here: an implantable device for desynchronizing the activity of pathologically active brain areas comprising means for stimulating brain regions) is excluded from patenting under Article 53 (c) EPC. In continuation...

  7. Trade Sectrets and Patent Protection

    What is the relationship between trade secrets and patents? Are they mutually exclusive or do they complement each other? Do innovative companies have to decide between trade secrets and patents or is there a possibility to make use of both protection variants? Rainer Beetz deals with these questions...

  8. EPO case law: Patentability of plants: Implementing Regulations are not EPC-compliant

    In decisions G 2/12 and G 2/13, the EBA of the EPO concluded that the scope of application of the term "essentially biological processes for the breeding of plants" in Art 53 lit b EPC is interpreted to the effect that product inventions where the claimed subject-matter is directed to plants or plant...

  9. New, but obvious delivery form

    In the prior art a study is known in which the patented active ingredient (fulvestrant) is already being used to treat breast cancer. Although this study only describes subcutaneous injections, it is logical to use this formulation for intramuscular injections as well. In order to achieve a long-term...

  10. Non-obvious fastening of storage elements of an oven

    The main difference between the patent in dispute and the closest prior art is that a convection chamber of the oven according to the invention is formed, on the one hand, by storage elements which are held by means of brackets attached to the outer wall of the combustion chamber and which are in direct...
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