International Patent Subject Matter Eligibility: Court Treatment, Patent Office Practices, Filing and Claiming

Description

Every year patentees file more patent applications in a wider range of countries. Since the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) came into force in 1978, nearly four million PCT applications have been filed to enable patentees to obtain international protection for their inventions – and more than half of these PCT applications were filed in the last ten years. A broad patent portfolio is of increasing importance to large and small companies in a variety of fields.

Yet, prosecuting patents in different countries can be challenging. Each country has its own laws for pursuing patent applications and achieving enforceable patents. And while treaties and other agreements (like the Paris Convention and the PCT) lay a foundation for many countries’ patent systems, local patent law varies widely on the issue of patent eligibility. Patent attorneys and the clients they serve therefore must be cognizant of these differences in eligibility law in different jurisdictions and take them into account when pursuing patent protection internationally.

Listen as our authoritative panel of patent attorneys discusses the significant differences in subject matter eligibility in the United States and before the European Patent Office (EPO). Panel members will also provide insights gleaned from their recently published global guide to patent subject matter eligibility, which examines the different approaches to subject matter eligibility in many important jurisdictions around the world.