® Institut der beim Europäischen Patentamt zugelassenen Vertreter Institute of Professional Representatives before the European Patent Office Institut des mandataires agréés près l’Office européen des brevets ISSN 1434-8853 Information March 2020 1 20 Results of the Election to the 19th Council 20 epi Quo vadis? by J. Pereira da Cruz, T. Tangena 21 Educational events and deadlines 15 Patents on Artificial Intelligence – Valuable 27 Report of the OCC by D. Brophy Assets or Not Worth the Paper They are 34 Report of the Litcom by T. Walshe printed on by M. Fischer 40 Report of the Editorial Committee by M. Névant Cover: Tradition This picture, photographed by Berrin Kalenderli (European Patent Attorney, TR) was part of the epi Artists Exhibition 2018 at the EPO, Munich Berrin Kalenderli orn in 1972. Trademarks and errin Kalenderli ist im Jahr 1972 errin Kalenderli est née en 1972. BPatents Attorney. Having joined Bgeboren. Die eingetragene türki- BElle est responsable du départe- the firm in 1995 and being Head of sche Patent- und Markenanwältin und ment Marques du cabinet qu’elle a Trademark Department, Berrin is reg- europäische Patentanwältin (Großva- rejoint en 1995 (Deris). Berrin est istered as Trademark and Patent terregelung) leitet die Markenabtei- mandataire turque en marques et en Attorney, European Patent Attorney. lung der Kanzlei, in die sie 1995 ein- brevets, ainsi que mandataire euro- She is a member of epi, AIPPI, INTA, getreten ist. Sie ist Mitglied des epi, péen en brevets. Elle est membre de Internet Committee of INTA and der Internationalen Vereinigung für l’epi, de l’AIPPI, de l’INTA, de la com- Intellectual Property Constituency of den Schutz des Geistigen Eigentums mission internet de l’INTA, et de la ICANN. Graduated from one of the AIPPI, der türkischen Landesgruppe commission PI de l’ICANN. Diplômée leading universities, Bosphorus Uni- des AIPPI, der INTA, des Internet Komi- de l’Université du Bosphore, elle tra- versity, she has been working on tee der INTA und des Wahlausschusses vaille depuis plus de 20 ans sur des Intellectual Property connected non- der ICANN. Sie graduierte an der matières non contentieuses et de contentious and prosecution matters Bosphorus Universität und arbeitet seit procédure en relation avec la PI. Elle for over two decades and represents mehr als zwei Jahrzehnten an nicht représente des sociétés locales et local and international companies in streitigen Erteilungsverfahren auf dem internationales dans un grand nom- a wide variety of areas, as well as Gebiet des Intellectual Property und bre de domaines, notamment la local clientele on international scale vertritt lokale und internationale Man- clientèle locale pour obtenir une pro- for protection of their IP rights in for- danten. Darüber hinaus unterstützt tection de leurs droits de PI à eign territories. She is fluent in sie nationale Mandanten beim Schutz l’échelle internationale. Elle parle English and German and is an active ihrer IP Rechte im Ausland. Sie spricht anglais et allemand couramment, et member of the Executive Board of fließend Englisch und Deutsch und ist est un membre actif du conseil d’ad- Deriş. She has interest in photogra- aktives Mitglied des Executive Board ministration de Deris. Elle a un inté- phy, participating at INTA art exhibi- von Deris. Sie interessiert sich für Pho- rêt particulier pour la photographie, tion in the years 2013, 2014 and epi tografie, nahm an den INTA Kunst- et a participé à l’exposition artistique Artists Exhibition in 2015 and 2018. ausstellungen der Jahre 2013, 2014 de l’INTA en 2013 et 2014, et à celle She also participated in Los Angeles und an der epi Artists Exhibition 2015 de l’epi en 2015 et 2018. Elle a éga- Photo Festival – focus Turkey with und 2018 teil. Ferner nahm sie am lement participé au festival de la her photographs in 2014. Los Angeles Photo Festival mit dem photo de Los Angeles – consacré à Fokus Türkei im Jahr 2014 teil. la Turquie – en 2014. 2 Information 01/2020 Table of Contents Introduction 4 Editorial 5 Results of the Election to the 19th Council Educational events 20 epi Quo vadis? by J. Pereira da Cruz, T. Tangena 23 Deadline epi Information 2/2020 30 Educational events and deadlines 24 World IP Day 2020 33 VESPA – EQE Preparation Courses 34 EQE Training Maastricht, by C. Mulder Patent practice Committee reports 25 Patents on Artificial Intelligence – Valuable Assets or Not Worth the Paper They are 36 Report of the Online Communications printed on, by M. M. Fischer Committee, by D. Brophy 29 Book review: Europäisches 38 Report of the Litigation Committee, Patentübereinkommen, by M. Thesen by T. Walshe 40 Report of the Editorial Committee, by M. Névant 40 First meeting of the Working Group set up at C87 to explore a new epi IP Commercialisation Committee (IPCC) General Information 41 epi Board 41 Next Board and Council Meetings 42 epi Disciplinary Bodies and Committees 46 Contact Data of Legal and Unitary Patent Division Measures for epi meetings in view of Covid-19 situation The Board of the European Patent Institute is persons should be conducted via videoconferenc- closely monitoring the spread of the novel ing. Regarding the 88th Council meeting, the Coronavirus (Covid-19) in Europe. Following Board will communicate a decision on 6 April in discussions at the last Board meeting on 26th view of the situation and available information February, the Board came to the conclusion to at that time. Registration to the 88th Council implement precautionary measures regarding meeting will be possible only after that date and epi meetings in the next couple of months. All flights should be booked only after that commu- Committee meetings with attendance up to 20 nication. Information 01/2020 3 Editorial Fast (and furious?) M. Névant (FR), Editorial Committee ot so long ago (read discussing what an invention is all about, i.e. first and the editorial here1) we foremost an advance in science. Why indeed bother N anticipated that the embarking on a discussion of novelty and inventive step day would come soon when a when a patent can be revoked on procedural grounds? Board of Appeal would issue We sincerely hope that the Boards of Appeal, in their a decision in abridged form. wisdom, will make a cautious use of some provisions of That day has come! In decision the RPBA 2020. T1687/172 of 9 January 2020, Board of Appeal 3.2.01 has As we were proofreading this issue before publication taken advantage of the pro- the following events unfolded: visions of article 15(8) of the Marc Névant RPBA 2020 to issue what is • The President of CIPA, Richard Mair, has been probably today the shortest advised by the UKIPO CEO, Tim Moss, that the UK rationale ever by a Board of Appeal: Government will no longer seek to participate in the Unitary Patent or Unified Patent Court system. “Nach Überprüfung der angefochtenen Entscheidung • Due to Covid-19, the pre- and main EQE sched- schließt sich die Kammer der zutreffenden Begründung uled on 16.03-19.03.20 have been cancelled. der Einspruchsabteilung an und verweist auf die Entschei- Revised dates, if any, have not yet been deter- dungsgründe 12.3 bzw. 13.3 bzw. 14.3 und 15.3.” mined. (in short, the Board of Appeal shares the conclusion of • For the same reason, the Board of epi decided the Opposition Division as mentioned in reasons 12.3, that Committee meetings with attendance of up 13.3, 14.3 and 15.3 of their decision). to 20 people should be held via videoconference until further notice. Regarding the C88 Council We are inclined to say “fair enough” insofar as it appears meeting scheduled for 11.05 - 12.05.2020 in that, in this case, the parties merely repeated during the Glasgow (see also below), the Board of epi will course of appeal proceedings what they had said before communicate its decision on 06.04.2020 on pro- the Opposition Division. ceeding with the Meeting in the light of the situa- tion and information available at that time. However, at the risk of repeating ourselves, increasing the productivity of the Boards of Appeal to meet the We will endeavour to provide more input on these topics expectations of the Administrative Council of the EPOrg in the next issue. should not be done at the expense of the primary task of the Boards of Appeal which is – in our view – to On a last but hopefully more encouraging note, a new develop case law. This, in fact, helps EPO examiners and Council has been elected this year – the results for each professional representatives to reach a common goal, constituency are presented right after this editorial. On namely granting/obtaining quality patents. behalf on the Editorial Committee, I would like to thank all past members for their work and contribution, and Unfortunately, the RPBA 2020 seems to be a toolbox wish newly elected and re-elected members all the best giving the Boards of Appeal many possibilities to avoid for the coming 3-year term. 1 https://information.patentepi.org/issue-1-2019/editorial.html 2 https://www.epo.org/law-practice/case-law-appeals/pdf/t171687du1.pdf 4 Information 01/2020 Introduction Ergebnisse der Wahl zum 19. Rat INTRODUCTION Hinweis Mitglieder des Instituts, die gegen das Wahlergebnis Ein- Ich danke den Mitgliedern des Wahlausschusses, den wände erheben möchten, müssen ihre schriftlichen Ein- Herren M.A. Müller, P. Barrett, und A.Vilhjálmsson sowie wände rechtsgültig unterzeichnet bis spätestens 29. März Frau V. Pröll und Frau J. Kalbe (epi Sekretariat) für ihren 2020 beim Sekretariat des Instituts einreichen. Später ein- Einsatz. gehende Einwände werden nicht berücksichtigt.