Author Archive

The EPO's Economic and Scientific Advisory Board (ESAB) has issued a statement on the Unitary Patent package, based on a study commissioned to Europe Economics and a report of a two-day workshop. At its third annual meeting in February 2014, ESAB members decided for their 2014 ...

Standardization and intellectual property rights are key contributors to industrial innovation and industrial competitiveness. While standards ensure rapid diffusion of technologies and interoperability between products, patents provide incentives for research and development and facilitate knowledge transfers. Many standards comprise innovative technologies that are protected by patents. Public authorities and the standardization ...

The Hellenic Industrial Property Organisation (OBI) and the European Patent Academy organised the seminar “Patent valuation and commercialisation – Making the most of patents for business”, on 20-21 March 2014 in Athens. The event was organised on the occasion of the Greek Presidency of the Council of the ...

On last April 11th, the Spanish Council of Ministers approved on first reading the Draft Law on Patents, reviewing the legal system of industrial property in Spain, regulated by the Patent Law 11/1986 currently in force. The main objective of the new law is to adapt its regulation to ...

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has recently announced the launch of its new Glossary Pilot Program as part of ongoing Obama administration efforts to strengthen the U.S. patent system. The pilot, which will begin on June 2 and run through December 31, 2014, is designed to enhance claim ...

The European Commission appointed a panel of European intellectual property (IP) valuation experts whose tasks included reviewing the valuation methods for IP and their use, identifying bottlenecks in these methods for the purpose of a company’s financial reporting, access to finance and litigation, identifying good practices and recommending policy ...

On 25 November 2013 Ireland deposited its instrument of accession to the Agreement of 17 October 2000 on the application of Article 65 of the European Patent Convention (EPC), namely the London Agreement. Under Article 6(2) of the EPC, the agreement has now entered into force in Ireland as of 1 ...

The EPO and the UK Intellectual Property Office have signed a co-operation agreement aimed at offering better services to business and inventors. The ‘Co-operation Plan' was signed in London by EPO President Benoît Battistelli, the UK Intellectual Property Minister, Lord Younger, and John Alty, head of the Intellectual ...

The USPTO has recently published a guidance memorandum titled "Guidance For Determining Subject Matter Eligibility Of Claims Reciting Or Involving Laws of Nature, Natural Phenomena, & Natural Products" which implements a new procedure to address changes in the law relating to subject matter eligibility under 35 U.S.C. ...

The EPO President, Mr. Benoît Battistelli, has recently highlighted in his blog that, over the past decade, the valuation and monetisation of intellectual property (IP) have become extremely important for a knowledge-based economy. In the past, the approach to IP valuation was mainly defensive, when liquidity problems ...