On 16 January 2020, the TBA upheld long-standing EPO law and practice regarding the right to claim priority. Schlich represented Opponent 1 in the opposition and appeal proceedings and is pleased to present our report here. In addition we analyse how interpretation of...
There has been much discussion over the past few years on the effect of Brexit on intellectual property rights within the UK. The precise outcomes were, for a long time, unknown due to the uncertainty regarding the type of Brexit that would be delivered. It is now...
The Supreme Court issued its judgement recently in relation to the application for employee compensation by Professor Shanks considering use of the “outstanding benefit” test in relation to a large company. Prof Shanks was employed by CRL, a wholly owned...
In an appeal from the Examining Division, the Board of Appeal have referred questions to the Enlarged Board in relation to double patenting, and specifically in relation to an application which claims priority from an earlier granted European patent. Surprisingly,...
Currently, the cost of validating a European patent in multiple European jurisdictions can be prohibitive and a prudent Patentee may have to select a subset of EPO countries to protect their invention in. In contrast, the unitary patent offers the advantages of wider...
Background US patents have a term of 20 years from the filing date of the patent application. A long period of prosecution, however, can effectively diminish the patent term, since a patent is only enforceable after grant. In an effort to make things fairer, the USPTO...
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