Assessing patentability requirements at the EPO

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• INTRODUCTION

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    When deciding whether to grant a patent or refuse an application, the European Patent Office (EPO) examines whether the patent application meets the requirements of the European Patent Convention (EPC). These requirements concern the invention the application relates to and how the application is formulated. The invention must be new, involve an inventive step and be industrially applicable, while the application must meet requirements relating to unity, sufficiency of disclosure and clarity.

    Upon receiving an application, the patent examiner needs to determine whether the claimed invention fulfils all of the necessary requirements to be eligible for a patent. The following sections shed more light on these requirements, how they are assessed and which objections could be raised during the process, together with examples of different situations.
    

• EVALUATING APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS

  Click the links below to learn about the various requirements relating to your application and how they are assessed.
  

  • Clarity Page
  • Sufficiency of disclosure Page
  • Unity Page

• EVALUATING INVENTION REQUIREMENTS

  Click the links below to learn about the various requirements relating to your invention and how they are assessed.
  

  • Novelty Page
  • Inventive step Page
  • Industrial applicability Page

• QUIZ

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