In November last year, the EPO updated the Guidelines for Examination in relation to presentations of information, which includes Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) (see sections G-II, 3.7 and 3.7.1). This provides a useful consolidation of their current approach to such inventions. As will be familiar to users of the EPO, when assessing patentability of patent applications in this area, the claimed subject-matter is considered as a whole to determine if it has technical character [...]

At the present time, the average duration of the examination procedure before the European Patent Office (EPO) is 23.2 months1. The examination time period should be reduced to 12 months by 20202. The decreasing duration of the examination procedure comes under criticisms from some applicants. According to its detractors, the faster procedure would prevent applicants from raising funds or submitting complementary data during the examination phase. The EPO acknowledged those observations and suggested to [...]

Usually, companies want to protect their patents and trademarks to make sure that nobody else will benefit from them. But not all inventions or creations are a good fit for an in-house IP strategy. In these cases, the Dennemeyer Group might help monetize patents and trademarks. A client contacted us because he had inherited a patent from his deceased brother. The patent covered an intelligent charging station for electric cars and it was the [...]