Wednesday, November 1 2023   \  Published by IP Watchdog .

EPO Enlarged Board of Appeal Introduces Strong Presumption of Priority Entitlement

EPO Enlarged Board of Appeal Introduces Strong Presumption of Priority Entitlement

Now that G1/22 & G2/22 has issued, it has become much more difficult for parties to successfully challenge priority claims, which is good news for applicants / proprietors.” EPO

The Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) on October 10 issued its (consolidated) decision G1/22 & G2/22, which promises to significantly reduce priority issues for applicants—U.S.applicants in particular.

Background

When the applicants for a European patent application differ from the applicants on the priority application, the EPO employs the well-established “joint applicants approach” to evaluate the priority claim’s validity. For the priority claim to be valid, and assuming there’s been no transfer of the priority right, all applicants of the priority application must also be among the applicants of the subsequent European patent application. The table below outlines various scenarios and indicates whether the priority claim is valid according to the joint applicants approach. Read more

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