Category EPO

Intellectual Property & Trust

TrustTalk, a sister blog by IPEG consultant Severin de Wit, as well as the TrustTalk podcast cover all aspects of trust. As of December 1, 2020, IPEG will keep its readers and followers updated on trust aspects that IPR practitioners…

Patenting Tomatoes and Broccoli

Today the European Patent Office’s Enlarged Board of Appeal will hear a highly contested and much anticipated case on on the patentability of biotechnological enhanced breeding methods (in this case for broccoli and tomatoes). The patentability of biotechnological inventions is…

New Impetus on EU Patent, Unified EU Patent Court and UPLS

During the Intellectual Property Business Congress (IPBC) in Munich one of the more interesting presentations was from Margot Fröhlinger, Director knowledge based economy of the EU Commission (DG Internal Market and Services) who handles the unpopular file on the creation…

Why Can’t Europe find a new EPO president?

The European Patent Office is unable to find a successor for Allison Brimelow, the current EPO President.  One of the leading candidates is said to be Benoît Battistelli, currently Director General of the French National Institute of Industrial Property.  Battistelli is…

Peer-to-Patent Community Patent Review

One would assume that easier access to information worldwide that internet provides would make it easier for Patent Offices to find prior art against a patent application so as to ensure that only real inventions are passing the patent process…

Sara Lee’s Patent for Coffee Pads Revoked by EPO

Senseo is a well known and hugely popular European coffee brewing system developed in 2001 by two Dutch companies, Philips and Douwe Egberts (subsidiary of Sara Lee). This co-branding project resulted in two main innovations, the coffee pads (or “pods”)…