The EPO’s project “Bringing Teams Together” appears to face criticism from within the EPO. Various social media and patent-related news sites cover the sarcastic letter allegedly drafted by an unnamed EPO staff member (see, e.g., Wolter Kluwer blog).
Holiday Season & IP
There is a plethora of IP rights related to the holiday season. The EUIPO has featured various designs related to the holiday season. There are also numerous patents related to christmas-specific topics, such as US 5 161 882 A for those who are confronted with the challenge of organizing their christmas lighting. Great reminder on what can be protected for an idea to kick of. Happy holidays everyone!
EPO Opposition Matters 2022 conference
Very interesting professional training event at the EPO – Opposition Matters 2022. Lots of practical advice as regards opposition proceedings in general, and specifically oral proceedings and amendments of a party’s case. Very engaging presenters and very useful practical tips. The event materials and recordings of the key presentations will be made available at the EPO e-learning center. You may want to check this out if you are involved in EPO oppositions.
Judges panel in UPC conference
The EPO co-hosted a conference on the new unitary patent system in the mid- November 2022. Part of the conference was a judges panel featuring some of the prominent figures that were recently elected to the UPC bench. Various topics were discussed. Just some examples: There appeared to be consensus among the panelist judges that it will be rare for a revocation counterclaim to be separated from infringement proceedings and be sent to the central division (unless there are plural revocation counterclaims before different local/regional divisions). The judges’ current views appeared to be less aligned with regard to issues such as disproportionality of injunctive relief. A recording of the conference is still available online – worth watching if you are interested in this topic.
EPO Case Law Conference 2022
Interesting (online) educational event at the EPO yesterday and today on the case law and practice of the Boards of Appeal.
As regards procedural aspects, appellants and defendants should be aware of the way in which the Boards apply the rules relating to late-filing (Art. 12, 13 RPBA 2020). See, e.g., T 2843/19, T 1707/17, and T 1869/18. While a party to appeal proceedings has a right to react to new developments (Art. 113 EPC), the party must exercise this right as soon as possible in the proceedings. Thus, it is advisable to react in a timely manner to new developments that may be brought about by the other party’s grounds of appeal or response brief, or the Board’s communication under Art. 15(1) RPBA 2020.
US applicants – beware of the EPO’s ‘due care’ criterion
EPO Board of Appeal decision J 8/21 discusses the relevant criteria for re-establishment of rights (restitutio ad integrum). In the matter under appeal, the USPTO as Receiving Office of a PCT application decided to restore the right of priority based on the finding that the criterion for restoration applied by it was satisfied, namely that the failure to file the international application within the priority period had been unintentional. This decision of the USPTO is not effective in the EPO which applies the stricter ‘due care‘ criterion (R. 49ter.1(b) PCT). The Board held that the EPO was right in refusing the request for re-establishment of rights by the Designated Office under R. 49ter.2 PCT when applying the ‘due care‘ criterion. The Board noted that, contrary to applicant-appellant’s arguments, there can be different results when two different patent offices apply different criteria, and that this is inherent to the PCT system.
The decision illustrates that applicants should be aware of the fact that a re-establishment of rights by the USPTO as Receiving Office under the ‘unintentional’ criterion is not effective in EPO proceedings which applies the ‘due care’ criterion.
Halloween
US 6 904 612 B2 addresses the challenges of celebrating Halloween in warm weather conditions. The patent provides a climate adaptive Halloween costume. Wishing everyone a great weekend – it’s going to be sunny and warm in Munich!
UPC judges announced
The names of (a first group of) UPC judges were published on the UPC website. Additional judges are yet to be named. The list of judges has been widely discussed, e.g. on Juve and Managing IP.
Blog section
I am planning to write regularly on IP topics that I find interesting. I will strive to make German-language content accessible to English-speaking IP professionals (e.g., by providing translations of catchphrases of IP-related court decisions).