Within the group of BRICS countries, Brazil offers both a dynamic economy and attractive new market opportunities. Positive developments are also apparent in intellectual property, where national patent filings have [...]
Let’s face it: patent offices have not been in the habit of taking the public stage. They have developed over the years as essentially technical organisations whose highly qualified examiners [...]
In no other area are patentability issues so controversial as in biotechnology. That might appear surprising; after all, the R&D work done in this field can pave the way for [...]
On 5 and 6 July, a group of European delegates (from Denmark, France, Germany, the UK and the EPO) gathered in Tegernsee (Germany) at the EPO’s invitation for an informal [...]
Major decisions on patent system reform have very recently been taken on both sides of the Atlantic. Last week, the US House of Representatives passed a bill envisaging a move [...]
The European patent system is a two-tier environment in which the European Patent Office is the single central authority empowered to grant patents for all our 38 member states whilst [...]
This week, in Budapest, our sixth successive annual European Inventor Award will be presented in recognition of 15 outstanding inventions nominated in five categories (“Industry”, “SMEs”, “Research”, “Non-European countries” and [...]
The patent system is sometimes portrayed as a monopoly-granting machine which is both expensive and difficult to use. That is hardly a balanced view, of course, but I do acknowledge [...]
For the last few days, all our thoughts have been with the Japanese people afflicted by a series of dreadful catastrophes. As the crisis has unfolded, I have been deeply [...]
This week, the two long awaited EU projects related to the Unitary Patent and the European Patent Court were in the spotlight as a decision and an opinion from two [...]
