The European Patent Office is accelerating opposition proceedings for cases subject to infringement and/or revocation actions in an effort to streamline cases before the Unified Patent Court (UPC), national courts and the EPO:
“From now on, the EPO will accelerate opposition proceedings when being informed not only of infringement actions but also of revocation proceedings pending before the UPC or a national court/authority of a member state.”
This applies in relation to both European patents and Unitary Patents and irrespective of an explicit request. Infringement or revocation proceedings relating to a European patent or a European patent with unitary effect (“Unitary Patent”) may take place before the Unified Patent Court or a national court or competent authority of a contracting state in parallel to opposition proceedings before the EPO (“parallel opposition proceedings”). In such cases, concluding the EPO parallel opposition proceedings swiftly fosters legal certainty and procedural efficiency, as well as high quality and uniformity in the European patent system.
The EPO will therefore accelerate its processing of parallel opposition proceedings if it is informed by the UPC or a national court or competent authority of a contracting state that an infringement or revocation action relating to a European patent or a Unitary Patent has been instituted before it.
Where parallel opposition proceedings are accelerated, the opposition division will make every effort to issue the next procedural action (e.g. communication, summons to oral proceedings) within three months of receipt of such information or the party's request.
UK Patent Office – more AI-related patent fillings expected
A landmark judgement in the UK has been handed down in the Emotional Perception AI Ltd case, stating that artificial neural networks (ANN's) are not computer programs. This is a marked divergence from previous established practice at both the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) and the European Patent Office (EPO), which was to examine applications relating to any kind of artificial intelligence (AI) as computer-implemented inventions (Emotional Perception AI Ltd v Comptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks [2023] EWHC 2948 (Ch)) .
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