Hands-on commentary on UPC decisions, key developments in IP law, and news from SONN.
In this decision, the Board of Appeal addresses the principles of uniform claim construction, drawing on the landmark decision G 1/24 of the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office. The description and…
Read more →To benefit from the deemed novelty under Article 54(5) EPC, claims for a second medical use must relate to a specific use in a method under Article 53(c) EPC. The only reason why such claims can be patentable lies in…
Read more →To assess whether an invention is to be considered obvious in view of the state of the art, the problem-solution approach developed by the EPO should be applied as a priority – as far as possible – in order to increase…
Read more →Jul 21, 2025
The requirement underlying the “specific use” within the meaning of Article 54(5) EPC, as expressly concluded by the Enlarged Board in decision G 2/08, is to be interpreted only in contrast to the broad, general…
Read more →Jul 14, 2025
Human–animal chimeras and methods for their production are excluded from patentability under Article 53(a) EPC if the invention infringes human dignity. This is the case, for example, where the claimed subject-matter…
Read more →Jul 7, 2025
Even if the patentee’s conduct during the development of the invention were regarded as contrary to morality and public order (in the case at hand: research on traditional antimalarial remedies among the Indigenous…
Read more →Where the claimed invention contains a physical parameter having an open-ended range in one direction that cannot be reproduced on the basis of common general knowledge together with the rest of the invention, the range…
Read more →Feb 4, 2022
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…
Read more →Jul 14, 2021
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…
Read more →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…
Read more →Im Rahmen der Beurteilung der erfinderischen Tätigkeit wird eine computerimplementierte Simulation eines technischen Systems, die als solche beansprucht wird, als eine technische Aufgabe lösend angesehen, sofern sie…
Read more →May 4, 2021
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…
Read more →Oct 26, 2020
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.…
Read more →Oct 14, 2019
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…
Read more →Jul 24, 2019
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…
Read more →May 31, 2019
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…
Read more →Feb 4, 2019
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…
Read more →Dec 24, 2018
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…
Read more →Apr 30, 2018
The applicant applied for a patent under the title "anti snoring baloon". The application contained no (patent) claims only a description and a test report. The description mentioned the desired properties of the…
Read more →Feb 15, 2018
If, for the first time in the contested decision a document is cited which in view of the patent office anticipates the claimed subject without giving the applicant the opportunity to comment on it beforehand, the…
Read more →Jul 21, 2016
News that British sculptor Anish Kapoor had obtained "exclusive rights" on the colour VantaBlack® - the "blackest black" - caused quite a stir in the media early this year. Patenting colours - is this even possible? Yet…
Read more →Sep 1, 2013
In a recent decision, the Austrian Patent Appeal Board had to decide on the question whether an internet disclosure was proven to be published before the priority date of the patent in suit. In this decision, the Patent…
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