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21.08.2025

On 28 January 2025, the EPO’s Board of Appeal (BoA) issued Decision T 0070/23, which highlights the limitations of the conclusions of the recent Decision in G1/24.

25.06.2025

Artificial Intelligence

The European Patent Office (EPO) Boards of Appeal (BoA) have issued an important decision addressing the growing intersection of artificial intelligence and patent law. In T 1193/23, decided on April 15, 2025, the Board established crucial precedent regarding the use of AI-generated content. This decision relates specifically to ChatGPT responses used as evidence of how a person skilled in the art would interpret a technical term in a patent claim.

23.06.2025

Decision Harmonises EPO Practice with

National Courts and Unified Patent Court (UPC)

Recently the Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBoA) of the European Patent Office (EPO) has issued its relatively short, but for the most part decisive, G 1/24 decision providing authoritative guidance on how the claims should be interpreted to assess patentability under Articles 52 to 57 EPC.  This decision reconciles divergent case law of the Boards of Appeal, and we are pleased to observe that the EBoA has committed to harmonising the EPO’s approach to that taken by the downstream national and multinational courts. 

The order in the decision sets out the following. The claims are the starting point and the basis for assessing the patentability of an invention under Articles 52 to 57 EPC. The description and drawings shall always be consulted to interpret the claims when assessing the patentability of an invention under Articles 52 to 57 EPC, and not only if the person skilled in the art finds a claim to be unclear or ambiguous when read in isolation.

14.05.2025

WP Thompson was among the winners in SME News Magazine's 2025 UK Legal Awards.