Patents

IPO’s consultation on Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) and Innovation The UK government is seeking views from industry and others both domestically and globally as to whether the ecosystem surrounding Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) is functioning efficiently and effectively and striking the right balance for all entities involved. The purpose of the consultation is to help… Read more »

Protecting Digital Medtech Innovation This article was first published in BioScience Today.   For many years the medical technology (medtech) sector has been at the forefront of innovation and the Covid-19 pandemic has not slowed it down, with new technology quickly being developed to test for, prevent and treat the virus. Protecting medtech innovations can… Read more »

EPO rejects appeals against refusal of applications naming an AI system as inventor Further to our earlier publication (https://www.aathornton.com/court-of-appeal-dabus-case/) reporting a UK Court of Appeal decision concerning the naming of an AI system DABUS as an inventor for a patent application, the European Patent Office (EPO) has now issued a decision on the corresponding European… Read more »

Mike Jennings and Michael Piper CLE paper for AIPLA’s annual meeting – see here: A practial update on patenting computer implemented inventions with a preview for 2022

Court of Appeal confirms requirement for human inventor in ‘DABUS’ case   On 21 September 2021 the Court of Appeal handed down its decision in THALER v COMPTROLLER GENERAL concerning allowability of UK patents having an AI based machine known as DABUS (short for Device for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience) listed as an inventor. A… Read more »

Innovate UK Smart Grants – Competition Opens! Innovate UK are “the UK’s innovation agency” and are part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) which is a national funding agency investing in science and research in the UK. Their mission is to “drive productivity and economic growth by supporting businesses to develop and realise the potential… Read more »

The Nagoya Protocol and the UK – are you compliant? The Nagoya Protocol has been in force in the UK since October 2015 and obliges users of genetic resources and traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources to comply with due diligence requirements before its ‘utilisation’. There is also an obligation to make a due diligence… Read more »

Deadline approaching for the Government R&D Tax Credits Consultation – your input needed for potential changes to RDEC and SME R&D Relief Government R&D Tax Credits Consultation: The UK government intends to raise investment in research and development to 2.4% of UK GDP by 2027 and wants to ensure that one of the key incentives for… Read more »

AA Thornton welcomes five candidates for Virtual work insight days 2021 Earlier this month, we were delighted to welcome five engaging candidates to our first virtual work insight days, including the great-granddaughter of our founding partner Alfred Augustus Thornton.  The two day event was an opportunity for the students to have a practical insight into… Read more »

AA Thornton’s Pharma & Biotech experts contribute to the European Patent Office’s peer consultation on the EPOs Guidelines for Examination; Part G chapter II,  section 5.6 concerning Antibodies. On 1st March 2021 the EPO published new guidelines for the examination of claims to antibodies which has raised some some specific concerns regarding the proposed wording… Read more »