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European Patent Office Scotches Appeal For Review
News The European Patent Office has declined a request from the UK Court of Appeal to clarify European software patent law. Court of Appeal judge Lord Justice Jacob asked the European Patent Office (EPO) to review the rules on software patents, saying...
[March 22, 2007, 8:35]
European Patent Office: Moving To An Open Platform Via IBM Technology And Java
White Papers The EPO’s solution is a suite of Java-based document management applications used by the EPO’s internal staff of examiners and the general public, respectively, to search and view any of the organizations 40 million patent-related documents.
[January 1, 1970, 0:59]
European Parliament Blocks Patent Liberalisation
News European software patents are difficult to enforce largely because of the differences between national patent laws, according to campaigners. Rufus Pollock, the director of FFII UK, said that the Parliament's vote was a "great result", but said it...
[March 16, 2006, 9:35]
Economists Reject European Software Patent Proposals
News Under the current system, many patents approved by the European Patent Office are invalidated by the patent regimes of individual countries. A group of economists from around Europe has issued a scathing critique of the European Parliament's...
[August 27, 2003, 17:55]
Patent Directive Slammed At UKPO Workshop
News A group of software developers and patent lawyers agreed on Thursday at a UK Patent Office (UKPO) workshop that the definition of technical contribution in the proposed European software patent directive is wrong.
[April 8, 2005, 14:30]
Survey: European Patents Have Quality Problems
News The majority of staff at the European Patent Office (EPO) feel they do not have enough time for patent examinations and back-up examinations, according to a survey of 1,300 patent examiners conducted by the staff union.
[June 8, 2004, 13:40]
Non-Disruptive Backups And Migrations Enhances European Patent Protection And Management
White Papers The European Patent Office grants European patents. The European Patent Office (EPO) needed to support up to 60 million patents documents and 800,000 patents within a high availability and ultra resilient DB2 environment.
[July 11, 2008, 1:02]
Patent Office Launches Online Search Service
News Esp@ceNet offers a database of all patents registered with the UK Patent Office and the European Patent Office over the last two years and will be a quick reference for those wishing to find out about the viability of a new idea.
[October 27, 1998, 17:21]
Europeans Vote Against Software Patents
News European representatives on Wednesday voted against plans to change a European Patent Convention which prohibits software patents being granted by the European Patent Office. It could rule to allow the European Patent Office to allow software...
[November 23, 2000, 16:48]
UK Patent Office Under Fire Over Software Report
News However, Pollock said that the technical contribution clause does not limit the patentability of software, as can be shown by some of the patents which have already been granted by the European Patent Office.
[November 8, 2004, 17:18]
IT Patent Issues Simplified For Businesses
News The revised European Patent Convention took effect this week, bringing in a system designed to substantially simplify patent issues for businesses, according to the European Patent Office. The updated Patent Convention has been 10 years in the...
[December 14, 2007, 15:28]
Judge Rules Computer Programs Can Be Patented
News The UK's application of European patent law has been thrown into uncertainty after a High Court judge disagreed with the principle that computer programs are not patentable. However, the European Patent Convention (EPC), a revised version of which...
[January 29, 2008, 9:49]
Patent Injustice For Small Software Companies
News Of the SMEs granted patents by the European Patent Office, 81 percent had only been granted a single patent over six years. Although this is an accusation that the UK patent office vigorously denies, claiming that the quality of the patents it...
[June 29, 2005, 18:15]
EU-wide Patents 'move Closer'
News Software patent campaigners have previously warned that this law would ratify the European Patent Office's practice of granting software patents, and could therefore legalise software patents, despite the European Parliament's defeat of the...
[May 5, 2006, 12:10]
Siemens Mocked For Mobile Data Patent
News It was granted by the European Patent Office in 2004, eight years after Siemens applied. Talarczyk estimates that the European Patent Office has granted more than 25,000 software patents. Professor Joachim Henkel of the Technical University Munich...
[November 8, 2006, 10:45]
EC Pushes On With Patent Directive
Talkback Although the standard of examination at the European Patent Office is generally accepted to be of a very high quality (far better than that at the US Patent Office, for example), some applications slip through the net and are granted in a shoddy...
[February 28, 2005, 14:24]
BT's Attitude Is Unsurprising
Talkback We have not encountered particular barriers obtaining IPRs in the UK because of system complexity, although we would welcome greater alignment of UK Patent Office (UKPO) practice with that of the European Patent Office (EPO) on issues such as...
[January 24, 2007, 12:52]
Amazon Loses One-click Patent Injunction
News This landmark decision will be watched closely by the European Commission where politicians are set to decide whether to expand European patent regulations to cover such business processes, a move that is fiercely opposed by independent...
[March 9, 2001, 14:17]
Software Patent War Ignites Again
News Patents on software are formally disallowed under the European patent system, but are routinely granted by the European patent office, according to critics. Internal market commissioner Charlie McCreevy is to deliver a speech next week promoting...
[September 21, 2006, 13:05]
UK Defies US On Software Patents
News In the UK, the patent office says that European law on what types of software processes can be patented is dangerously unclear. The European Patent Office voted in January against plans to change the European Patent Convention to allow patenting of...
[March 12, 2001, 11:47]
