Knowledge Hub

Lloyd Palmer provides a short update on the EPO’s decision to continue oral proceedings by videoconference in examination and opposition during pendency of referral G1/21 You can read the EPO news item on G1/21 here. Making predictions within the global uncertainty of the past few years has been a risky business. From unpredictable US elections… Read more »

AA Thornton’s AI experts contributed to the UK government review of artificial intelligence and intellectual property and have been monitoring developments. Mike Jennings and LLoyd Palmer provide this summary of recent government progress The UK Government has published the responses it received to its 2020 “Call for views on AI and IP” and published its… Read more »

G1/19 decision – Patenting Computer Simulation in Europe The much anticipated G1/19 decision has arrived with the EPO Enlarged Board of Appeal confirming that the EPO’s established approach to the assessment of inventive step of computer-implemented inventions is the correct approach for computer-implemented simulation methods. On 10 March 2021, the Enlarged Board issued decision G1/19 and… Read more »

Appeals to the Appointed Person in the UK – the unappealing truth (part 3) This is an expanded version of an article that was written by the author and  first published in IPKat in March 2021. This forms part of a series of articles A further 19 decisions have issued since the second article in this series and… Read more »

Trademark assignments and the transfer of the goodwill seem, well, oh-so dull, until they are not. Ian Gill reports on a recent cautionary tale from the UK. This is an expanded version of an article that was written by the author and  first published in IPKat in February 2021 Scott Hallsworth (‘SH’) is a renowned Australian chef… Read more »

Amgen v Sanofi and Regeneron: Broad antibody patents held invalid for lack of enablement in US Lack of enablement: A conclusion of lack of enablement means that the disclosure provided in the patent specification, at the time the application was filed, would not have taught one skilled in the art how to make and/or use the full… Read more »

AA Thornton ranked in WTR 1000 2021 We are delighted to announce that our Trade Mark team has been ranked in WTR 1000 2021 in the silver banding, having attracted ‘extensive feedback’ and are noted as being ‘renowned for [our] top-end work’. Additionally, partner Ian Gill has been ranked again as a one of the… Read more »

We are delighted that Partner Mike Jennings has been appointed by the EPO President to continue his contributions to the SACEPO Working Party on Quality for another 3 years. What is SACEPO? The Standing Advisory Committee before the European Patent Office (SACEPO) was formed in 1978. Its aim was to give “interested circles” a say… Read more »

Things got heated in a recent trade mark case where the UK Intellectual Property Office refused to grant protection to Tefal for it’s so-called ‘Famous Red Spot’. The decision for this case can be read here. Background on the Tefal mark  In 2018, Tefal filed an application to register its ‘red dot’ as a trade… Read more »

Partner Dr. Lawrence King reflects on Patenting in the Pandemic and the importance of locking down innovation in troubled times in this article, first published in The Chemical Engineer. The importance of locking down innovation in troubled times TO MOST, A Poor Man’s Tale of a Patent, published in October 1850, remains one of Charles Dickens’ lesser-known… Read more »