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News and commentary on IP issues

Plausibility at the EPO - Enlarged Board of Appeal decision G2/21

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The long-awaited Enlarged Board of Appeal decision G2/21 has finally been issued. It confirms that evidence submitted in support of inventive step cannot be disregarded solely on the ground that such evidence had not been public before the filing date and was only filed after that date. The background to this Decision and the referral to the E...
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Developing Drugs for Developing World Diseases: The Role of Patents

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The Covid-19 pandemic has brought the issue of patents for medicines (in particular vaccines in the case of Covid) to the fore.From the debate surrounding enhancing distribution of Covid vaccines in the developing world by implementing a patent waiver, it is clear that the oft-heard argument that intellectual property to protect such vital products...
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The Unified Patent Court and Unitary Patent are coming

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UPC
The long-awaited Unified Patent Court opens its doors on 1 June 2023 now that Germany has ratified the UPC Agreement. Alongside this, patents granted at the European Patent Office will be able to be registered for a single Unitary right covering certain EU member states (in addition to other states being individually registered separately in the co...
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DABUS at the UK's Supreme Court - inventorship of AI created inventions to be decided

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Supreme Court of United Kingdom
On 2 March 2023, Robert Jehan and Dr Ryan Abbott will appear before the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom to argue that the Patents Act 1977 can permit the granting of patents for the DABUS patent applications. The appellant, Dr Thaler, created an Artificial Intelligence (AI) machine known as DABUS that in turn, in the absence of a traditional hu...
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EPO Board of Appeal Decision J0008/20 on AI Inventor DABUS - Commentary by Robert Jehan

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On 6 July 2022 the European Patent Office's Legal Board of Appeal published its reasoned decision J0008/20 explaining why it refused Dr Thaler's appeal at the end of the oral proceedings held on 21 December 2021. The decision establishes very important principles in law in relation to the patentability of inventions created by AI systems, that...
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Williams Powell wins MIP award of European Cross-Border Patent Litigation Team

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We are delighted to announce that Williams Powell was presented with the special award of European Cross-Border Patent Litigation Team of the Year for the Stephen Thaler v Comptroller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (DABUS) case at the prestigious Managing IP Awards on 15 June 2022. Williams Powell was recognised for the work of Robert ...
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Sequence Listings Looking Towards the "Big Bang"

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The beginning of July sees a shake up in how sequence listings are to be presented in patent applications around the world. After almost 25 years, WIPO has updated its standard from ST.25 to ST.26, and relevant patent applications at the International Bureau and in all WIPO contracting states (including both the EPO and the UK IPO) will need to inc...
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UK Patent Attorneys able to represent clients before the European Unified Patent Court

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It has been confirmed that European patent attorneys having a relevant UK qualification will be able to represent clients directly before the Unified Patent Court. All of Williams Powell's patent attorneys have the relevant qualifications and will therefore be entered on the list of representatives. As previously reported, the new UPC system i...
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European Unitary Patent in 2022?

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As the European Patent Office announces transitional provisions ready for entry into force of the UPC Agreement, it is starting to look like we may have the first European Unitary Patent within the next year or so. While there will of course be competition to see who manages to get the first Unitary Patent, there are also serious strategi...
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Plausibility - EPO stays proceedings in view of Enlarged Board Referral

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The European Patent Office has announced a stay of all examination/opposition proceedings involving applications/patents in which the assessment of inventive step is exclusively based on evidence that was not publicly available before the filing date, and in which the decision depends entirely on the outcome of Referral G2/21 (Plausibility), u...
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A Unified Patent Court for Europe - Coming Soon?

UPC
Europe may soon have its Unified Patent Court and Williams Powell is ready to assist you. With attorneys qualified for the European Patent Litigation Certificate (which gives UPC rights of representation) and as a Patent Attorney Advocate & Litigator (which gives rights of representation in the UK Courts) we are well-placed not only to obtain I...
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Patent Sufficiency reconsidered by UK Court of Appeal

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This Court of Appeal Decision concerned two families of patents held by FibroGen:Family A and Family B relating to H1F-PH inhibitors for the treatment of (respectively) CKD anaemia (anaemia associated with chronic kidney disease) and ACD (anaemia of chronic disease).Family A was published before the relevant priority date of Family B, and so i...
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UK Court of Appeal judgment on the DABUS AI as inventor appeal

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On 21 September 2021 the Court of Appeal handed down its judgment in THALER v COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF PATENTS TRADE MARKS AND DESIGNS [2021] EWCA Civ 1374. The Court of Appeal, in a split 2/1 decision dismissed Dr Thaler's appeal. Lord Justice Arnold held in his judgment that there is no rule of law that a new intangible produced by existing ta...
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DABUS the AI system confirmed as the inventor and Dr Stephen Thaler as the owner of the DABUS inventions

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Today a second country has confirmed that DABUS, an artificial intelligence system, can be named as the inventor in a patent and that Dr Stephen Thaler as the rightful owner of the DABUS inventions. Following from patent applications filed by Williams Powell, first in the United Kingdom and at the European Patent Office, then by way of an inte...
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Illumina – Shining a light on DNA Sequencing Technology

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In this English High Court case relating to the infringement and validity of five patents held by Illumina, Mr Justice Birss decided upon several hot topics in the biotech patenting world. We summarise some of the most interesting points here. The Technology Briefly, the patents related to DNA sequencing technology.More specifically, three of ...
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Claiming Antibodies in European Patent Applications

Immune
In the past year, we have all heard more about antibodies in the general news than anyone ever desired. When we are exposed to pathogens, antibodies form a vital part of our immune systems in protecting us from deadly diseases.Isolated from the body or synthetically produced, antibodies can have many uses and are particularly important as therapeut...
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Defining Amino Acid and Nucleic Acid Sequences in European Patent Applications

BioSeq
Welcome guidance on the interpretation of claims to amino acids and nucleic acids defined by their sequences is provided by updated Guidelines for Examination at the European Patent Office now in force. New section F-IV-4.24 sets out that both amino acid sequences and nucleic acid sequences can be defined by "percentage identity". The percenta...
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UK IP rights - address for service changes

As of 1 January 2021, a UK, Gibraltar or Channel Islands address for service will be required for any new UK IP rights. This change has received parliamentary approval and is implemented in a UK IPO notice (TPN 2/2020) dated 21 December 2020. Action should be taken and we would be very happy to assist.  If your IP rights are&nbs...
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Breaking News - DABUS granted Right to Appeal UK Judgement

We are delighted that the UK Court of Appeal has today granted Dr Thaler the right to appeal the DABUS decision, which involves the important issue of patentability of inventions created by AI systems. Williams Powell is handling the DABUS patent applications as well as the UK and EPO appeals. The cases had been rejected by the UK High Court. The o...
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European Patent Office pushes use of video conferences in Opposition Division oral proceedings

 As of January 2021, parties will no longer have free choice on whether a hearing (oral proceedings) during examination or opposition is in person or via video conferencing before the European Patent Office (EPO). Video conferences will be the default. 12 months ago, we would have had to fight for a hearing (oral proceedings) to be held with t...
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