For a long time, the storage and retrieval of documents were time-consuming affairs for lawyers and caused productivity issues for a long time. Thankfully, Legal Document Management System is there to enable a smooth legal practice by tracking, managing, and storing documents with the help of metadata and tagging.
It is not unfair to say that Read More
The Enlarged Board of Appeal in the European Patent Convention is the highest judicial authority having the main task of uniform application of EPC. In one of the recent cases concerning the computer-implemented invention, the examining division refused the application on the reason of lack of inventive steps (European patent application 03793825.5). The applicant appealed to the Technical Board of Appeal which re...Read More
Recently, the US Chamber of Commerce Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC) released their Ninth Annual International IP index titled “Recovery through Ingenuity”. This index provides the global intellectual property ranking comparing the world’s developed and emerging markets. The index shows that despite the pandemic, the global performance of IP has improved with the United States, Japan, a...Read More
With the increase in patent filing around the world, the European Patent Office (EPO) comes up with the Patent Index 2020 addressing the filing activity going on at the EPO office in the last year. The year 2020 mostly went into tackling the pandemic, the effect of which has been substantially visible with the decrease on the country-to-country basis. This ...Read More
The structure of patent application claims in the PCT application for Europe sometimes requires strict adherence to the rules. The EPO is strict towards having the requirement of unity of inventions and also with the conciseness of independent claims. These issues are often faced by various applicants who enter th...Read More
For a patent governing the technological standards for which there are no such infringing alternatives, that patent comes under the ambit of Standard Essential Patents (SEP). These standards are reached through the consensus for setting up the ‘Common technology standard’ supported by the Standard Setting Organisation (SSO). The difficulty comes up with the perceived ‘standard’ that a patent b...Read More
Even though it might seem uncanny, the law is a business. And, clients are integral for any business, including law practice. Lawyer’s business also runs with the clients and to retain the clients, and it is integral to increase the client experience.
As a lawyer, you must be able to differentiate yourself from the competitors. Client servicing is one of the areas where you can stand out. It will ensure good word-of-mouth mar...Read More
Last year China adopted the Fourth Amendment to the China Patent Law bringing some of the changes to the said law. The Fourth Amendment of the Chinese Patent Law (CPL) has been approved by China's National People's Congress on October 17, 2020, which will take effect on June 01, 2021. After the ...Read More
The patent claim should always be directed towards the actual advances being made in the invention for which the patent is sought for. The drafting of the patent must be done in a way, which points out the subject matter. 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, a second paragraph requires that a patent application specification shall co...Read More
Patent Claims are the most important part of the patent specification. Why it becomes an important part is because it defines the invention. In other words, the patent claims define what the invention claims, thereby creating a boundary. Defining the boundary of the invention, the patent claims purportedly suggest the extent of the protection being conferred by the gra...Read More
The patent has a lot of value in it. It grants the inventor a monopoly which helps the inventor to commercially exploit the invention and earn the substantial investment being done by the inventor over the invention. The market demands more creative ideas that can make life much easier. The business must develop such an idea or concept that solves a technical problem in an unexpectedly new or better way. If it is making it, then it is highly imperativ...Read More
The patent provides a monopoly over an invention to the inventor. The filing of patents and its grant is a long tedious process that takes up to 2-3 years. Due to its nature of the invention and the cost that is involved with R&D, it is highly imperative to decide where to seek the patent rights and the expenses involved. An effective strategy of filing for patent protection will be to seek protection in the country of interest, where the pr...Read More
The Guidelines for Examination 2021, published by European Patent Office (EPO) came into force on March 1. Through these guidelines, a detailed explanation of the substantive and formal requirements is maintained. Few changes help keep up an effective stable text of the guidelines. Let us discuss some of the important changes that are done for Computer-implemented Inventions and Procedural matter.
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In the process of research and development, improvements and/or modifications of an invention are routine steps to make the invention more useful or to overcome difficulties of the main invention. A new independent patent application for the improvements and/or modifications of the main invention may not be possible due to the already filed patent application for the main invention. In such a scenario, the improvements and/...Read More
The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) under The Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MCI) has notified the Draft Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2021 dated February 9th, 2021 to further amend the Patents Rules, 2003 in the exercise of the powers conferred by section 159 of the Patents Act, 1970. The notification is made available to the public for any objections or rejections. These draft r...Read More