Updates on EPC, PCT, EPO case law and the e-EQE

I had the pleasure to be invited to the AI & IP FORUM organised by Forum Heidelberg.

Numerous speakers, from academia and the profession, industry and private practice, were taking part and the whole day was interesting as it gave a good insight to the ins and outs of AI’s influence on the world of IP in general and patents in particular.

EP 3 467 666 B1 relates to the progressive playback of multimedia files as they are downloaded over a network.

The corresponding patent application 18206048.3 is a divisional of European application 08705745.1, which was filed as an international application and published as WO 2008/086313.

Brief outline of the case

The patent was revoked as the claim 1 as granted as well as the AR filed in opposition were infringing Art 76(1) or Art 123(2),

EP 2 526 241 B1 relates to a stair tread element, such as a stair tread cover element or a stair tread renovation element.

Brief outline of the procedure

The OD maintained the patent according a MR filed during OP before the OD.

The opponent appealed.

The board held that the OD committed a SPV and remitted the case for further prosecution.

EP 3 446 216 A1 relates to a real-time environment and programmable logic controller and has been published as WO 2017/182467 A1.  

The aim of the application is to enable the integration of additional functions with an indefinite function runtime into the real-time environment.

Prior art D5 discloses a real-time environment in which tasks (‘co-operative tasks’) are executed with a predefined task runtime.

EP 2 558 029 B1 relates to systems for transcatheter implantation of a stented prosthetic heart valve.

Brief outline of the procedure

The OD decided that the patent as granted lacked N over D11 which was prior art under Art 54(3).

AR1 was offending Art 123(2) and the OD maintained the patent according to AR2.