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Unitary Patent

Latest News on UP & UPC

In its welcome message at the conference in Brussels on the Unitary Patent system, James Nurton, moderator of today’s event, shows a slide announcing that the new system, will start on April 1, 2023 with 17 participating EU Member States*.  While we are still waiting for the exact date of ratification of the UPC agreement by Germany, the April 1, 2023 start date seems thus now (almost) certain.

Why ask a patent attorney to write and file a patent application?

According to the (European) patent law, “A European patent application may be filed by any natural or legal person, or anybody equivalent to a legal person by virtue of the law governing it. [Art. 58 EPC]”. What this ultimately means is that any person is allowed to draft and file their own patent application for their valuable idea or innovative product. However, before grabbing pen and paper to draft your own patent application, there seems to be only one ‘pro’ we can identify with this approach yet several ‘cons’

Patent protection

Did you know that patent protection can be claimed for other categories than physical devices?

There are different categories of patent claims that can be used. In general, a distinction can be made between two different categories.
A first general category of patent claims is the “product claim”, which relates to physical entities such as products, devices and apparatuses, but can also include, for example, chemical substances and compositions.
A second general category of patent claims is the “process claim”, which relates to activities, such as methods, processes and uses, as long as some material product is used for effecting such activities. However, there are some exceptions to this which are explicitly excluded from patentability, such as biological processes for the production of plants or animals, and surgical, therapeutic or diagnostic methods for treatment of the human or animal body. Whereas, product claims relating to products for the use in surgical, therapeutic or diagnostic methods are permitted.

Exacting wording in my patent claims

Should I care about the exact wording used in my patent claims? Infringement proceedings: prosecution history estoppel versus doctrine of equivalents?

In Europe, according to the EPC and its Protocol on Interpretation (Protocol herein after), the claims should be interpreted adopting a balanced approach that combines a fair protection for the patent holder with a reasonable degree of certainty for third parties.

In this perspective, the claims should not be interpreted strictly, in the sense of only the dictionary definition of a certain wording. Conversely, these claims should not be treated as mere guidelines, since the claims play a determinative part in deciding on the patent’s scope. The Protocol thus requires a middle ground between the two extremes to guarantee a balance between fairness to the patent holder and giving the public reasonable certainty as to what the claims actually cover.

When can it be useful to keep my invention secret?

Filing Patents is often an important aspect for implementing an intellectual property strategy for innovative companies. Patents are however not the only way to protect an invention. In fact, in some cases, filing a patent application is not recommended.

Indeed, a patent application is usually published 18 months after filing (or the priority date), which means that all the technical details and know-how described in it will become publicly available. This simple fact may have important ramifications for your business and will influence the way you protect your innovation.

It also raises important questions, like: Do you really want to give access to your competitors to the technical data and know-how of your inventions or do you want to keep all this information secret? Does it make sense to systematically file a patent for every invention?

Confidentiality

The confidentiality agreement in brief

With respect to project developments, often times it is necessary to engage in discussions with third parties,  including strategic information concerning the project without binding the parties to any cooperation agreement that regulates their working relationship.

However, it is important that the confidential nature of this information be preserved to protect the owner of the ‘strategic information’ and any advantage it affords them.

unitary patent

THE UNIFIED PATENT COURT, the new court for European Patents THE OPT-OUT OPTION

Thanks to progress in its ratification, the UPCA  is approaching its entry into force in the following 17 EU Contracting Member States: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia and Sweden.

The Provisional Application Phase (PAP) of the UPCA has already started. Once the preparations are sufficiently completed, Germany will ratify the UPCA, which will trigger the start of the 3 to 4 month sunrise period, preceding actual entry into effect of the UPC, which will likely occur early 2023.

Solution

Missed a patent deadline? Did you know that (European) patent law provides various remedies?

Unfortunately, during patent prosecution, it may occur that a deadline to perform an action required by the patent office is missed. However, do not despair! Legal remedies are sometimes available to address this. In fact, the European Patent Convention provides no fewer than three possible remedies in case a deadline is missed. Which remedy is available depends on the specific action that was missed.

World IP Day 2022

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐰𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈𝐏 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐡: 𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐮𝐫𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐧 𝐆𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐭𝐬.