EPO decision could trip up US patent defenders

31-08-2013

EPO decision could trip up US patent defenders

A decision from an opposition division of the European Patent Office may have “far-reaching consequences” for US patent holders, Solveig Moré tells LSIPR.

At the European Patent Office (EPO), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) challenged a patent owned by US research group the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB), on numerous grounds of opposition including lack of novelty and inventive step.

ISB’s application for a European patent (EP) is directed to the medical use of a peptide that induces an immune response and is based on an international patent application claiming priority of a US patent application filed in 2001.

Until recently, the US Patent and Trademark Office required that all patent applications name the inventor as the applicant, whereas international applications claiming US priority will often name a company, usually the inventor’s employer, as the applicant.


EPO, GlaxoSmithKline, Institute for Systems Biology, EP, entitlement to priority

LSIPR