Knowledge

21.08.2024

The EPO practice on selection inventions has developed considerably over the past decade. Two recent decisions of the Technical Board of Appeal are particularly instructive for applicants in the life sciences field. The Guidelines for Examination in the EPO (EPC Guidelines) define selection inventions as those that “deal with the selection of individual elements, subsets, or sub-ranges from a more generic disclosure in the prior art”. The Guidelines address the examination of both novelty and inventive step of selection inventions.

06.08.2024

Last year, we published an article looking at some of the IP issues raised by CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology. One of these issues concerned the battles over the ownership of certain fundamental patents.

16.01.2023

There have been some exciting announcements about the application of CRISPR-Cas9 type gene-editing technology to treat serious illnesses in the past few weeks. But this complex and rapidly evolving area of medicine raises some challenging IP issues.