The European Patent Convention (EPC) is used daily by many patent practitioners and is essential reading for the thousands of candidates taking the European Qualifying Examination (EQE) each year. Since 1994, Visser’s Annotated European Patent Convention has been providing valuable insights into the EPC to help attorneys practise successfully before the European Patent Office (EPO)….

The European Patent Office received 193 460 applications last year, an increase of 2.5% compared to 2021 and a new record. Digital communication (+11.2% over 2021) was the field with the highest number of patent applications, followed closely by medical technology (+1.0%) and computer technology (+1.8%). These are some numbers from the EPO’s Patent Index 2022, which was published today. The…

The Central Staff Committee of the European Patent Office supports the initiative of important European companies who’ve requested to do something about declining patent quality at the EPO. In a publication, the committee wrote it ‘is ready to contribute actively and constructively (…) respond to external criticism and put quality back on the EPO’s agenda’….

The industry has serious concerns about the deteriorating patent quality at the European Patent Office. The issue was discussed earlier this month between the EPO and the Industry Patent Quality Charter, an group representing major international corporations, law firms and patent offices. After their meeting, Beat Weibel, chief IP counsel, group senior vice-president at Siemens…

An outburst of anger of a president and his re-election, social tensions, industrial actions: for anyone familiar with the world of patents it will be clear that all this refers to the European Patent Office, which drew a lot of attention on the Kluwer Patent Blog last year, even more than the biggest change in…

Christmas is a season for rest, family gatherings, warm wishes, hopes and good cheer. These days, children and adults alike may be preparing their wish list for Father Christmas. One of the gifts that patent aficionados are expecting with excitement for 2023 is a clear answer to the questions referred to the EPO Enlarged Board…