This article was written for Digital Forge, a membership-based organisation that runs events in the North of England for investors, entrepreneurs across tech and manufacturing sectors. Learn more about Digital Forge from their website – forgedforgrowth.com Much has been published about the role of AI in innovation, but still relatively little has been said about […]
Recently, the European Patent Office (EPO) in case T1193/23 concluded that ChatGPT is not a skilled person. This may be unsurprising to followers AI and patent news -, after all, the well-reported 2023 UK Supreme Court DABUS case found that an AI cannot be an inventor because it is not a person. However, the ‘skilled […]
The test for novelty at the European Patent Office (EPO) is centred around the so called “gold standard” whereby a prior art disclosure anticipates a claim if it directly and unambiguously discloses all of the claimed features in combination. However, over the years, a requirement has developed from the case law for evaluating whether a […]
The Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBoA) of the European Patent Office (EPO) is set to decide on the referral G1/24 from appeal case T439/22. The central issue is whether the description and figures should be utilised to interpret the claims when evaluating patentability. While the referral is primarily concerned with post-grant opposition proceedings, it may […]
The European Patent Office (EPO) has announced a pilot program aimed at enhancing the preparation of minutes of oral proceedings held via videoconference (VC) through the integration of AI transcription tools. Starting in May 2025 and running until the end of the year, selected examining division and opposition division oral proceedings will take part in […]
The new legislation governing Design rights in the European Union, the European Design Regulation (EUDR), enters into force on 1 May 2025. Several changes come into force with the new Regulation, although there are many further provisions that require implementing secondary legislation and will only be applicable later, in 2026 and 2027. Here are the […]