Die Europäische Kommission hat einen Fonds eingerichtet, der kleine und mittelständische Unternehmen mit Sitz in der EU dabei unterstützen soll Rechte in Bezug auf geistiges Eigentum (IP) zu erhalten und durchzusetzen. Darunter fallen zum Beispiel Patente, Marken und Gebrauchsmuster. Die Umsetzung des Fonds zeigt geringfügige Unterschiede von Land zu Land....
European Fund supporting IP for SMEs
The European Commission has implemented a fund to support European Union based small and medium-sized enterprises to obtain and exploit intellectual property rights, such as patents, trademarks and designs. The way the fund operates is slightly different from country to country. Generally, it provides support to SMEs of up to...
Artificial Intelligence Systems are not inventors in Europe
Shortly before Christmas, the European Patent Office’s Board of Appeal rejected an application to name an artificial intelligence system, Dabus, as an inventor on two patent applications EP 18 275 163 and EP 18 275 174. The full details of the decision have not emerged, but a brief press release gives some details of the case. The two...
A “Grace Period” for European Patents?
The European Patent Office has started a study to see whether a so-called "grace period" should be introduced into the European Patent system. Currently, the novelty requirement under the European Patent Convention (EPC) set out in Article 54 is an absolute novelty standard under which any disclosure made by the...
Developing a Patent Strategy
Developing a patent strategy - as part of a broader company strategy for protection intellectual property - should be an important component of the company's business plan. Experience shows, however, that for many companies the patent strategy is done "on the fly" and reactive, rather than executing a defined comprehensive...
Patenting an Artificial Intelligence Invention – guidance from the US Patent Office
In 2019, the US Patent and Trademark Office drafted detailed guidance for the patent software invention. The 2019 Revised Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance included one example (no 39) which was directed towards a method for training a neural network for facial detection. The example was very simple - the...
Austria approves ratification of Unified Patent Court
The Austrian Bundesrat (the upper legislative chamber in the Austrian Parliament) did not object on 2 December to the decision of the Nationalrat (lower Chamber of the Austrian Parliament) regarding the Protocol to the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court on Provisional Application (PPA). As reported earlier, the Nationalrat has already decided in favour of the ratification...
Austria takes next steps toward Unified Patent Court
Austria has taken the next steps towards the start of the Unified Patent Court by the approval by the Nationalrat (National Council - i.e., the lower house of parliament) on 19 November 2021 the Protocol on Provisional Application of the Unified Patent Court. This follows the recent ratification by Germany...
Unified Patent Court Agreement – withdrawal of the UK
As is known, the United Kingdom withdrew from the European Union on 31 January 2020. One of the unresolved questions was the effect that this withdrawal would have on the so-called Unified Patent Court which is being set up as a litigation forum for Unified European Patents, covering most countries...
Artificial Intelligence as an inventor – the German decision
Last Thursday (11 November) the German Federal Patent Court decided that an artificial intelligence system could not be listed as an inventor, but that a German Patent Application needed to name a person as the inventor, but could add that the conception of the invention was aided by an artificial...