Recent Articles

Charlie McCREEVY, European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, on OHIM Policy.

Jon Katz
November 17, 2008 15:04

HABM LogoOHIM is holding an exhibition in the European Parliament in Brussels, hosted by Parliament Vice-President Mr Alejo Vidal-Quadras. The event, which is intended to update MEPs and other interested institutional parties on the agency’s activities and objectives, includes multimedia p...

Progress Report "Enhancing the Patent System in Europe": Protocol of a Meltdown.

Jon Katz
November 17, 2008 07:40

Logo of the French EU PresidencyOn November 14, 2008, the French EU Presidency has issued Document 15674/08 conveying a progress report on the EU Patent system to COREPER. Sad to say, but in its tendency the document appears to confirm the pessimistic assessment of the chences of the EU Community...

Bad News Needed?

Jon Katz
November 16, 2008 21:26

If any of the readers of this Blog should suffer scarcity of bad news, here are some:Of course it is not bad news that Ms Roya Ghafele has published a report under the title Perceptions of Intellectual Property: a review. However, her findings are quite depressing (albeit they certainly do not come...

Macedonia To Join the EPC Club

Jon Katz
November 12, 2008 12:37

Flag of MacedoniaThe European Patent Office (EPO) reports that on October 28, 2008, the Government of the Republic of Macedonia (MK) has deposited its instrument of accession to the European Patent Convention (EPC). The EPC will accordingly enter into force for the former Yugoslav Republic of...

EPOrg Administrative Council Has Amended EPC Impementation Regulations

Jon Katz
November 11, 2008 15:21

EPO LogoOn October 21, 2008, the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation (EPOrg) has taken a decision to amend a number of Rules of the Implementation Regulation of the European Patent Convention (EPC).The amendments shall enter into force on April 01, 2009.A subset of the...

Some Musings on CII.

Jon Katz
October 28, 2008 07:52

Claim 1 of EP 0482154 B1 Are patent applicants and patent proprietors really interested in subtle discussions on questions of substantive patent law concerning the limitations of patentable subject-matter? Questions like those raised by Ms Brimelow, President of the European Patent Office, in her...

Ms Brimelow did it!

Jon Katz
October 25, 2008 16:51

Ms Alison Brimelow, President EPOUnder the date of October 22, 2008, the President of the European Patent Office (EPO), Ms Alison Brimelow, has referred a set of basic questions to the Enlarged Board of Appeal concerning the patentability of computer-implemented inventions:Question 1: Can a...

Mr. Charlie McCreevy, European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, on the EU Community Patent

Jon Katz
October 17, 2008 13:09

Mr Charlie McCREEVY, European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, in his speech on the conference Protecting innovation in Europe held in Strasbourg on October 16, 2008:"After decades of protracted discussions, where people have been safeguarding numerous self interests, the moment...

FFII About To Launch New Campaign Against Patents On Computer-Implemented Inventions.

Jon Katz
October 15, 2008 20:16

"Stop Software Patents" -  Campaign Logo Backed and/or directly organised by FFII, there is another campaign against patentability of computer-implemented inventions (CII) in the making labeled stopsoftwarepatents.euContrary to earlier approaches as launched during the hot phase of the ...

German Government to Amend Patent Law

Jon Katz
October 15, 2008 19:25

Logo of the German Ministry of Justice After a substantial amount of preparatory work undertaken by German Ministry of Justice ("Bundesjustizministerium") under Ms Brigitte Zypries, the German Government ("Bundeskabinett") today has finalised a Draft Bill for Unification and...