Critical raw materials are materials that are essential for the production of high-tech products, but are in limited supply and have in the past few years faced potential supply chain disruptions. These materials are called "critical" because they are used in many modern technologies, including quantum computing, semiconductor electronics, as...
Neural Networks and Technical Problems
According to the European Patent Office's Board of Appeal Decision T 0702/20, a neural network defines a class of mathematical functions and, as such, cannot be protected by a European Patent. However, the neural network can be considered when assessing the inventive stop used to solve a technical problem and...
Record Patent Grants in Germany
The German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA) reports granted 23,592 patents last year - 11.7% higher than the previous year, and the greatest number for over 30 years. The number of incoming applications at 57,214 was down by 2.3% compared to last year. Foreign (non-German) applications filed 20,020 applications,...
European Unified Patent – which countries does it include?
The start of the new Unified Patent in Europe has now been confirmed for 1 June 2023. It will be possible after this date to request that any European patents granted after this date can be validated as a so-called Unitary Patent covering a number of European countries. The Unitary...
Quantum Technology – Disclosing the Invention
The UK Intellectual Property Office recently had to decide whether the invention in a patent application claiming the production of quantum bits (or qubits) was sufficiently disclosed. The Hearing Officer confirmed the decision of the Examiner that the description was deficient and the invention was therefore not capable of industrial...
Start Date for the Unitary Patent Court
According to a number of informed sources, it is likely that the new Unified Patent Court Agreement will be ratified by Germany in the next month and the Court will start operating on 1 April 2023. This is not confirmed and we shall keep you up to date. The preparations...
Classifying Spam – not patentable in Europe
The challenges in obtaining European patent protection for inventions in the field of artificial intelligence have been highlighted in a recent decision by the European Patent Office’s Board of Appeal in dealing with a European patent application Nr. 14725807.3 by Google for “classifying resources using a deep network”. The patent...
Disclosing an Invention
The German Federal Court of Justice recently provided guidance on the level of disclosure of the invention required for a patent to be valid. The case (number X ZR 16/20 from 29 March 2022 - headlined "Übertragungsleistungssteuerungsverfahren") concerned a mobile communications system for communication between a base station and a...
Neural Networks are not Inventive
A recent German Patent Court decision No. 19 W (pat) 7/22 from 1 June 2022 reflected the practice of the European Patent Office in assessing the inventive step of an invention employing machine learning or artificial intelligence. The German Court decided that the mere inclusion of a reference to a...
Industrial Technologies 2022 Grenoble
This week three of our colleagues (Robert Harrison, Kilian Müller, and Eva Magd) took part in the EU-organised conference on Industrial Technologies 2022, held in Grenoble (France). The event is designed for research and technology organizations (RTOs), representatives of industrial companies as well as policymakers to discuss current trends, challenges...