EPLAW PATENT BLOG

EPO – EBA – G 0002/21 – Plausibility

Posted: March 23rd, 2023

EPO, Enlarged Board of Appeal, 23 March 2023, Case no. G 0002/21

Today, the decision of the Enlarged Board of Appeal on plausibility came out. The headnote reads as follows:

1. Evidence submitted by a patent applicant or proprietor to prove a technical effect relied upon for acknowledgement of inventive step of the claimed subject-matter may not be disregarded solely on the ground that such evidence, on which the effect rests, had not been public before the filing date of the patent in suit and was filed after that date.

2. A patent applicant or proprietor may rely upon a technical effect for inventive step if the skilled person, having the common general knowledge in mind, and based on the application as originally filed, would derive said effect as being encompassed by the technical teaching and embodied by the same originally disclosed invention.

The press release can be read here.
The full decision can be read here.

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