European Patent Convention , patents

European Patent Convention, Art. 52 (2) (a). Available from URL http //www. european-patent-office.Org/legal/epc/e/ar52.html A52 See Ref. 10. 

Applications can either be made separately in every country where protection is sought - a process that is both costly and time consuming - or imder one of the international conventions that exist. The one most relevant to UK applicants is the European Patent Convention (EPC). Under this, an application is made to the European Patent Office in Munich, designating the signatory states in which a patent is required. This replaces the procedures in the National Patent Offices and results, upon acceptance of the application, in separate national patents in each of the designated states. All European Community Member States are parties. It should be noted that there is no single patent available for all the European Community countries a so-called Community Patent is envisaged for the future, but is still some way off. 

Novelty is essential to patentability and is well-defined in the respective patent laws of at least the United States of America, the European Patent Convention (EPC) [1], Japan, and other jurisdictions. Nothing can be patentable that is not new. Although novelty is basic to patentability, different concepts of novelty exist throughout the different patent systems in the world. The most straightforward is that of absolute novelty , which is applied by the European Patent Convention in Art. 54 ... 

The different definitions of novelty in these important patent systems have far-reaching consequences. An invention may be novel according to U.S. law, even if it lacks absolute novelty as applied by the EPC. For example, if an inventor describes the invention in a printed publication, he must apply for a patent in the United States before one year (according to 102 (b)) has passed - otherwise any right to a U.S. patent is lost. In contrast, the inventor must file his patent application on the publication date, at the latest, if he wants to secure patent protection under the European Patent Convention and the national patent laws of many other countries. 

Patent systems typically require that the claimed invention must have utility (as set forth in 35 U.S. C. 101) or must be susceptible to industrial application (as set forth in Art. 57 EPC). With regard to genetic patenting, the European Patent Convention explicitly states that the industrial application of a sequence or a partial sequence of a gene must be disclosed in the patent application (see Rule 23e(3) EPC)). The requirement to associate the sequence with a function can also be found in U.S. law. 

EC e.e. ELF EMEA EPC EPO Es Enzyme commission Enantiomeric excess Effluent load factor European medicines evaluation agency European Patent Convention European Patent Office Taft steric parameter... 

ADR AUTM EPC IDA IFN-alpha INPI mAb alternative dispute resolution Association of University Technology Managers European Patent Convention irnationally recognized depositary authority Interferon-alpha Brazilian National Institute of Industrial Property Monoclonal antibody... 

A patentable invention must be new. Novelty excludes the "state of the art" (also "prior art") which is what was "made available to the public by means of a written or oral description, by use, or in any other way, before the date of filing of the. .. patent application" (Article 54, European Patent Convention, EPC). Under the EPC the content of an earlier European patent application (which is not yet published) is also considered as state of the art. 

With the European Patent Convention in mind, these patent applications appear hopeless. But rather pragmatic or missing definitions provided by the US Code do not exclude discoveries from being patented. The USC states that "patentability shall not be negotiated by the manner in which the invention was made" (35 USC, 103). Based on this definition of inventiveness and generally low requirements to prove utility, it appears less hopeless to get the above-mentioned patent application granted. This is especially true if... 

Similar to the European Patent Convention are two African organizations, joining English speaking countries or former French colonies by a common patent application and examination system. 

The Patenting of Life Forms under the European Patent Convention and German Patent Law Patentable Inventions in the Field of Genetic Manipulations. 

The EPO was set up by the European Patent Convention of 1973, and its first patents were granted in 1980. At the end of 2008, contracting states to the EPO comprised the twenty-seven member states of the European Union plus Croatia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey, and Macedonia. The EPO grants patents in whichever of these countries are designated on the specification, and the patent documents are published in English, French, or German. 

The PCT first came into force in January 1978. It is in effect in 109 countries, including the United States, all the countries of the European Patent Convention, Japan, Canada, and China, as of January 1, 2001. 

European Patent Convention Part II, 11th edition, July... 

In most situations the industrial sponsor should try to agree to publication of Background and University Technical Information (subject to prior review by both parties). To circumvent the "academic freedom" obstacle (and protect valuable research developments), corporate sponsors of university research should request the right to review papers or articles by university scientific personnel pertaining to the Sponsored Research field sufficiently in advance of the time they are to be submitted for publication. The advance review period should afford the corporate party adequate time to evaluate the proposed publication for the presence of patentable subject matter or Corporate Technical Information. Publication of an invention prior to filing a patent application can bar most foreign patent protection (e.g. European Patent Convention Article 54) and disclosure. 

Druck R. European Patent Convention. European Patent Office Kirchheim, Germany, 2002. 

There are three principal requirements for an invention to be patented as set out in the European Patent Convention ... 

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