Claim interpretation and Essential features with EPO
A technical workshop for patent examiners and IP managers, using real examples from aquaculture (English speaking event).
Examiners from the EPO will share their practices on claim interpretation, which is a pre-requisite for both performing a useful search and for the following patentability assessment. The goal is harmonized claim interpretation.
Aquaculture is an important industry in Norway and in this workshop we will present patent statistics and landscapes within various fields of aquaculture. We will also use cases from aquaculture as a backdrop for presenting and discussing interpretation of claims and essential features in patent applications.
In order for the clarity requirement to be met, independent claims must define all the essential features of the invention. Essential features being those features which are necessary for achieving a technical effect underlying the solution of the technical problem with which the application is concerned. However, in practical examination it can sometimes be challenging to reason what constitutes the essential features of an invention. In a concluding session, EPO and NIPO examiners will share their experiences with such reasoning, including experiences as to how objections related to lack of essential features may be successfully addressed, and which pitfalls to avoid.
Detaljer
Program
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Welcome!
Introduction of participants and goal setting
Bjørn Lillekjendlie, Director, Patent Department, IPO -
Patenting in aquaculture - global trends
Marianne Skånseng, patent examiner, NIPO
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Presentation of patent statistics from two specific technical fields
Ricardo Oltra Garcia & Christian Weinmuller, Patent examiners, EPO
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Break
Short coffee break
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Interpretation of claims
Essential features in light of Art. 84 EPC
- general aspects, features in claims vs "in the light of the description"
- generalised features
- suitable for
- results to be achieved
- functional features
Q&A
Ricardo Oltra García & Christian Weinmüller, Patent examiners, EPO -
Break
Short coffee break
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Discussion of examples
Cases with mechanical features from the field of aquaculture
Art. 84 EPC, essential features
Ricardo Oltra García & Christian Weinmüller, Patent examiners, EPO
Q&A
Moderator: Ida Sofia R. Stenhagen, Patent examiner, NIPO -
Concluding remarks
Ida Sofia R. Stenhagen, Patent examiner, NIPO
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Bjørn Lillekjendlie
NIPO Director Patent department
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Marianne Skånseng
NIPO Patent examiner
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Christian Weinmuller
EPO Patent examiner
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Ricardo Oltra Garcia
EPO Patent examiner