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Our partners and attorneys are highly qualified and highly experienced to advise you in all areas of Intellectual Property law. We advise start-ups, SMEs, and multinational corporations and ensure that your inventions, brands and designs are expertly protected.
Appeals to the Appointed Person in the UK – a RARE case of success relating to a missed counterstatement As discussed in previous reports – successful appeals before the Appointed Person in the UK are uncommon. This successful appeal related to a failure by the proprietor of a registration to file a timely defence to… Read more »
AA Thornton reports on 2022 updates to EPO Guidelines for Examination On 3 February 2022, the European Patent Office provided a preview of updates to its Guidelines for Examination, which will come into effect on 1 March 2022. There are various improvements that we really welcome, including some that we recommended, but we also have… Read more »
3D marks – Shaping up for the New Year! The classic Volkswagen (VW) camper van is everywhere these days, its image adorning anything from clothing, tea towels and bedlinen to coffee mugs, fold out chairs and beach windbreaks. Many a time the VW badge will be replaced with some other circular motif, often a peace… Read more »
Red letter day for Wordle – what next following its sale to The New York Times? News broke this week that viral online word game Wordle has been sold to The New York Times (NYT) for an undisclosed seven figure sum. The popularity of the free daily word puzzle has exploded in just a few… Read more »
10. Identification of changes by Part, Chapter and Section This forms part of a wider report on the 2022 updates to EPO Guidelines for Examination. The EPO website provides a list of modifications here.
9. Clarification of section on patentability of antibodies This forms part of a wider report on the 2022 updates to EPO Guidelines for Examination. We are pleased that the comments on patentability of antibodies in Guidelines Part G, Chapter II, section 5.6 has been clarified and updated. AA Thornton’s Craig Turner discussed this with… Read more »
8. Data retrieval, formats and structures This forms part of a wider report on the 2022 updates to EPO Guidelines for Examination. This section G-II, section 3.6.3 includes a minor clarification (underlined below): “A data structure or format contributes to the technical character of the invention if it produces has an intended technical use… Read more »
7. Update relating to games This forms part of a wider report on the 2022 updates to EPO Guidelines for Examination. In a section discussing patentability of games, section G-II, 3.5.2 of the previous Guidelines and the new version tells us that: “…An example of a technical context in which the manner of presenting… Read more »
6. Computer simulation, design or modelling – following G1/19 This forms part of a wider report on the 2022 updates to EPO Guidelines for Examination. The section of the Guidelines relating to patentability of computer simulation (Part G, Chapter II, section 3.3.2) has been changed significantly following the comments of the EPO’s Enlarged Board… Read more »
5. New example assessment of invention including mathematical method steps This forms part of a wider report on the 2022 updates to EPO Guidelines for Examination. There is a second new example assessment of inventive step at G-VII, 5.4.2.4. This example assesses a computer-implemented method of determining areas in which there is an increased… Read more »
