The EPC 2000 Revisions & how they will change your approach to seeking European patents

Date: December 13, 2007

Time: 12:30 PM Eastern

Duration: 1.0 hour

Phone in #: Please RSVP to admin@aplf.org in order to obtain toll free dial in number

Fee: No charge to participate

Topic:

The EPC 2000 Revisions & how they will change your approach to seeking European patents

Outline of Talk:

Seven years after a Diplomatic Conference was held to propose changes to the European Patent Convention (EPC), we will finally see the new law (the EPC 2000) come into effect on 13th December 2007. Significant changes have been made to the EPC to enhance its flexibility, streamline some procedures and align the EPC with the TRIPS agreement and PLT 2000. Additionally certain unnecessary requirements were removed. To make the EPC easier to change in the future, some regulations have been transferred from the main Articles into the secondary Rules.

Recently the French government has ratified the London Agreement. The main aim of the London Agreement is to reduce costs by introducing a cost-attractive post-grant translation regime for all European patents. This affords an opportunity to review ways of reducing costs of European patents.

The Presenter:

Robin Browne (rfb@lbpat.com Leaman Browne, UK) – Robin is a Chartered Patent Attorney and European Patent Attorney. He has more than twenty years’ post qualification experience in many aspects of patent, trademark, design and exploitation matters. His practice has included prosecution and filing of European and national patent applications for a wide variety of clients with particular emphasis on chemical and pharmaceutical subject matter. He has experience of patent and trademark litigation in the UK High Court, Court of Appeal and House of Lords.

Presentation Support Material:

Will be distributed to attendees before the meeting.

Questions:

You will have the opportunity to ask questions during the presentation.

RSVP (admin@aplf.org) early to obtain toll free dial in number. We have a fixed number of lines available.

Our Roundtable discussions are a free service to in-house counsel involved in IP matters that want to receive very timely and accurate summary information on business-relevant patent law matters, and APLF member firm attorneys.

You might also be interested in the following alerts:

• The EPC 2000 Revisions & how they will change your approach to seeking European patents
• New EPO fee increases for 2008 and 2009
• Licensing of Co-Owned UK Patents
• France Has Now Ratified The London Agreement
• The London Agreement - A reduction in European Patent translation costs