24th Jun 2021
During appeal proceedings, the Board of Appeal may refer a question to the Enlarged Board of Appeal if a point of law of fundamental importance arises. On this basis, in February 2019, the Board of Appeal (for appeal number T0318/14) referred the following questions to the Enlarged Board of Appeal:1. Can a European patent application be refused under Article 97(2) EPC if it claims the same subject-matter as a European patent granted to the same applicant which does not form part of the state of the art pursuant to Article 54(2) and (3) EPC?2.1 If the answer to the first question is yes, what are the conditions for such a refusal, and are different conditions to be applied where the European patent application under examination was filed
17th Jun 2021
Smiley Miley, Inc. (‘SMI’), the company owned by American singer Miley Cyrus, has won a six year legal battle to register the trade mark MILEY CYRUS in the EU. The General Court of the European Union (‘the GC’) issued its decisions on 16 June 2021, overturning the refusal of this trade mark application by the EU Intellectual Property Office (‘the EUIPO’).
14th Jun 2021
The General Court of the European Union (‘the GC’) has issued its hotly anticipated decision in Hasbro Inc. v European Union Intellectual Property Office (‘EUIPO’). This case centres on whether one or more EU trade mark (‘EUTM’) registrations owned by Hasbro Inc. (‘Hasbro’) for the trade mark MONOPOLY are invalid because Hasbro’s intentions, when re-filing a mark that was already protected by an EUTM covering the same goods/services, was to undermine the requirement to prove use of an EUTM.
11th Jun 2021
In their recent decision (T1839/18), the boards of appeal re-affirmed the legality of straw man oppositions. Although this in itself is not news, we felt it offered a good opportunity to look again at the many advantages of anonymously opposing a European patent.
28th May 2021
The oral proceedings before the Enlarged Board of Appeal to discuss the question of whether oral proceedings by video conference can be appointed without the consent of the parties was held (by video conference) today. However, we are still no closer to finding out whether video conference can be used for all oral proceedings without […]
30th Apr 2021
Olivia Buckingham attended Cambridge Wireless’ ‘Supply Chain 4.0 – How Wireless Communications is at the Centre of Supply Chain Digitisation’ event. Chaired by the National Physical Laboratory’s Andre Burgess, the event focused on how current and emerging digital technologies can impact supply chain efficiency, sustainability and resilience. This felt particularly topical, with the fragility and importance of supply chains having been highlighted by recent COVID-19 vaccine production issues.
23rd Apr 2021
Those statistics are complimented by the release of the Patent Index 2020 – patent filing statistics at the European Patent Office (EPO). The annual Patent Index allows for both a general assessment of innovation, and a deeper analysis into filing trends within Europe.
8th Apr 2021
As climate change and the energy transition drive fundamental shifts in technology, industry, investment and regulatory policy, innovation and technology have never played a more important role. In this article, we discuss how climate change and the energy transition are driving these shifts, the technologies needed to meet net-zero and how this is reflected by patent filings in renewable energy field. We gather the perspectives of leaders and decision makers in the fields of energy, technology, business and government, presenting at the recent CERAWeek 2021 conference.