On the 16th of April the European Patent Office (EPO) issued a further notice concerning the disruptions due to the COVID-19 outbreak informing the users about the following:
EPO has revised the Rules of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal
The revised Rules of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal (RPBA) were adopted by the Boards of Appeal Committee of EPO on 4 April 2019 and were unanimously approved by the Administrative Council at its 160th meeting on 26 and 27 June 2019.
EPO clarifies practice in the area of plant and animal patents
From 1 July 2017, the EPO will no longer grant patents for plants and animals exclusively obtained by means of an “essentially biological process”. The press release of the EPO from 29.06.2017 states the following: On a proposal of the European Patent Office its Administrative Council took a decision to amend the relevant Regulations in order…