Plants and animals exclusively obtained by essentially biological processes are not patentable. That is the opinion (G 3/19) of the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO). According to an EPO press communiqué of 14 May 2020, the “Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office adopted a dynamic interpretation of…
For the first time, the European Patent Office has revoked a patent as a consequence of amended regulations which exclude plants and animals obtained by an essentially biological breeding process for patentability. The revocation, last month, concerned European patent number 1.597.965, covering a type of broccoli adapted to make harvesting easier. The patent was granted…
Myles Jelf (Bristows LLP) talks about the difficulty with software patents. The difficulty arises from a need to identify the dividing line between the pure algorithm which should not be patentable and a technical invention which happens to use a computer. There are three different definitions between the UK, EPO and theUS. The EPC Article…
