Mathys & Squire Partner Michael Stott was recently featured in ‘EPO appeal board establishes ‘on-sale bar’ with big implications for patent owners’ by IAM magazine. He provided commentary on the ruling on G1/23, issued by the EPO’s Enlarged Board of Appeal on the 2nd of July.
The ruling concerns the interpretation of prior art, determining in particular when a complex product put on the market should be considered part of the state of art and the extent of “reproducibility” which entails prior art status. Previously following a narrow definition of the “reproducibility requirement” established in the EBA’s G1/92 ruling, the EBA lays down in G1/23 that “a product put on the market before the date of filing of a European patent cannot be excluded from the state of the art […] for the sole reason that its composition or internal structure could not be analysed or reproduced by the skilled person.”
The article in IAM highlights how this new decision will have significant ramifications for the patentability of products across a wide range of technological fields, affecting how innovators approach their IP strategy, including when to file patent applications and the use of trade secrets.
To read the full article click here.
