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News and commentary on IP issues

Nicola Draper Joins the Partnership

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We are pleased to announce that Nicola Draper (née Harrison) has joined the Partnership as of 14 January. Nicola has a law degree from the University of Kent and joined Williams Powell initially as a secretary in 2014. She was soon looking for further challenges so took on the roles of litigation paralegal and trade marks paralegal before deci...
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EPO Enlarged Board Decision Confirms Commercially Available Products Are Prior Art

EPO Enlarged Board Decision Confirms Commercially Available Products Are Prior Art
A recent European Patent Office Enlarged Board of Appeal decision G1/23 has clarified that commercially available products form part of the state of the art irrespective of whether the skilled person is able to reproducibly manufacture them. For thirty or so years, the leading authority on whether a product has been made available to the ...
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Peter Marchand Joins the Partnership

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We are delighted to announce that Dr Peter Marchand has joined the Partnership and are looking forward to him helping us build and grow the firm for the future. Pete joined Williams Powell in July 2024 having previously worked at another private practice firm. Pete specialises in mechanical and chemical technologies, and obtained a Master's degree ...
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EPO Enlarged Board clarifies that the description and drawings shall always be consulted to interpret claims

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On 18 June 2025, the European Patent Office's Enlarged Board of Appeal issued their keenly awaited G1/24 decision clarifying the rules of interpretation for patent claims when assessing patentability.  The Board decided that the "description and drawings shall always be consulted to interpret the claims" when assessing the patentability o...
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Defining Your Patient Group – A Cautionary Tale

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The recent EPO appeal decision T0589/22 discusses the requirement of plausibility in a diagnostic method case, but also provides a cautionary tale regarding defining a patient group in a claim. At the European Patent Office, for a therapeutic application (and by extension, a diagnostic application) to be considered sufficiently disclosed, the ...
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Validation of European Patents in Laos

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 The European Patent Office has announced that the validation agreement with Laos signed in May 2024 will enter into force on 1 April 2025. From this date, it will be possible to obtain protection in 46 countries by means of a single European patent: - The 39 Member States - The single remaining Extension State (Bosnia and Herzegovina) - ...
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How and whether to accelerate environmentally friendly patent applications in the UK

How and whether to accelerate environmentally friendly patent applications in the UK
Green means go…? The drive for sustainability across all industries is constantly yielding new technologies. However, it is not only in brand new ideas that businesses are striving to make progress. The improvement and optimisation of existing technologies is critical to making advancements in sustainability. This presents further opportunities for...
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Costa Rica to become EPO validation state

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A validation agreement has been signed between the European Patent Office and Costa Rica.  It was signed on 13 December 2024 and is expected to enter into force shortly, making Costa Rica the seventh country to become a "European" validation state.  Once the agreement comes into force, European Patents can be validated in Costa Rica ...
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UK Patents – Is a Neural Network a Computer Program

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The UK court case over Emotional Perception's patent application is set to continue into next year. The UK Supreme Court will consider the case and, we expect, be asked to decide what is a computer program. Earlier the year, we reported on Emotional Perception's success in the High Court, persuading the Judge that because an artificial neural netwo...
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UK IPO launches new SME financial support scheme, IP Advance

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In welcome news for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the UK Intellectual Property office (IPO) has launched "IP Advance", a new financial support scheme which offers SMEs a helping hand in understanding and commercialising their intellectual property (IP) assets. The scheme has two tiers of funding, and businesses can apply to either one,...
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Romania to become 18th Unitary Patent state

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Romania has ratified the Unitary Patent Court Agreement and deposited its ratification. It will become the 18th member state of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) on 01 September 2024, and Unitary Patents registered on or after this date will also include Romania.  As highlighted in our related article, this does not have retrospective effect...
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Not all Unitary Patents are created equal

18 UP states Romania becomes 18th Unitary Patent state
Different Unitary Patents can have different geographical coverage. The Unitary Patent states are fixed when a Unitary Patent is registered during the grant stage of a European patent. Countries that subsequently become Unitary Patent states are not retrospectively added. This is in stark contrast to European Trade Marks and Designs where...
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European Patent Office Launches New Fee Reduction Scheme to Support Micro-Entities

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In good news for individuals and smaller businesses with little experience of the European patent system, the European Patent Office will shortly be introducing additional discounts on some of its fees for certain applicants. However, there are strict and complex requirements on eligibility and caution should be used in deciding whether or not...
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European Patent Office Fees increase from 1 April 2024

Fee Increase
The European Patent Office has announced increases to a number of its fees. The increases become effective on any payment made from 1 April 2024 onward. Many, such as the increases to the search, examination and grant fees are modest. However, the renewal fees payable in years 3-5 of a European patent application will increase&n...
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Validation of European Patents in Georgia

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On 15 January 2024, the Republic of Georgia will become the 45th country in which patent protection may be obtained via a European patent. The "validation" agreement between Georgia and the European Patent Organisation was signed on 31 October 2019, and will come into force this month. The European Patent Organisation currently has 39 Member States...
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UK Patentability for Artificial Intelligence

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The UK High Court has issued an important ruling in Emotional Perception AI Ltd v Comptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks, overruling the UK IPO and deciding that trained artificial neural networks (ANNs) do not fall under the "program for a computer" exclusion of section 1(2)(c) of the Patents Act 1977. The UK I...
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Address for Service for UK IP Rights

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When the UK left the EU, the Intellectual Property Office created UK comparable registrations derived from EU trade marks and designs. Updates to the UKIPO address for service policy relating to these comparable rights are coming into force from 1 January 2024, details of which can be found below. Failure to have a correctly appointed UK address fo...
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UK Supreme Court Judgement on DABUS as an inventor

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Today, 20th December 2023, the UK Supreme Court has handed down its judgment in this case, dismissing Dr Thaler's appeal. On the Issue of Patentability The UK Supreme Court has held that: "…DABUS, a machine with no legal personality, is not and has never been an inventor within the meaning of the 1977 Act. This is more than a formal objection.It go...
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Right to priority in European Patent Applications - EPO decides there is a rebuttable presumption of validity

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The Enlarged Board of Appeal at the European Patent Office (EPO) has now issued its written decision in consolidated cases G1/22 and G2/22. The Enlarged Board of Appeal concludes that the EPO is competent to assess priority entitlement and that there is a rebuttable presumption that an applicant claiming priority in accordance with the formal requi...
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Goodbye to the "Ten Day Rule" at the EPO

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The EPO's idiosyncratic "ten day rule" relevant to calculating notified deadlines is being abolished in November. Many a European patent attorney has been thankful for the EPO's ten day rule after receipt of very late instructions to proceed with filing a response. This peculiarity of EPO practice has its origin in the days of postal ...
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