- 01-02/2008

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01-02/2008

2008-02-13
London Agreement becomes reality
On January 29, 2008 France deposited its instrument of ratification with the German Ministry of Justice. This means that enough countries have joined the London Agreement to make it come into force on May 1, 2008.
   The purpose of the London Agreement is to reduce the costs for obtaining patent protection in Europe by adopting a more efficient translation system for European patents. Several member states of the European Patent Convention (EPC) have thus agreed not to require full translations of granted European patents into national languages. In 2006, the French National Assembly voted against an approval of the London Agreement, which caused a delay in the implementation process - but now things have changed.
   Particularly small and medium-sized enterprises are expected to benefit from the changes brought by the London Agreement. Please feel free to contact one of our patent attorneys if you would like to learn more about the London Agreement and the advantages which will now be available to your company.

2008-02-08
Norway and Croatia join EPO
On January 1, 2008 Norway and Croatia joined the European patent organisation, EPO. This change means that a total of 34 states are now joined to the EPO and that a European patent may now also be valid for Norway and Croatia. It should be noted that these countries can only be included in applications which have been filed from January 1, 2008 and onwards, and not in pending applications. If you have questions about European patents you are welcome to ask your regular contact person at Ström and Gulliksson or ask one of our other patent attorneys.

2008-02-08
New English website
Today the new website of Ström & Gulliksson has been completed with an extensive English version. In order to live up to our high requirements on quality, topicality and usefulness the entire website will be continuously evaluated and developed. Please send your thoughts and suggestions to our web editor.

2008-02-08
New patent regulations in the USA quickly stopped
The new US patent regulations, which should have come into effect on November 1, 2007 have been stopped for the time being while waiting for a full court hearing.
The background to it all is that the US Patent Office, USPTO, in August of 2007 announced that new patent regulations would come into effect on November 1, 2007. The new rules were developed in order to increase the prosecution effectiveness at the USPTO and therefore included, among other things, restrictions on how many so-called ‘continuation applications’ an applicant may file for one and the same invention. The regulations included furthermore a limitation on the number of patent claims to a maximum of 25, of which a maximum of five could be independent. Furthermore, certain regulations would have a retroactive effect.
   The changes were not positively received. Critical notions were made by patent attorneys as well as by actors from various industries across the USA. One of these critics, pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, went as far as to sue the USPTO in October. It all played out on October 31 – the day before the regulation changes were to come into effect. That day, the federal court in Virginia decided to stop the regulations, at least for the time being, while waiting for a full court hearing. As a result, the USPTO was forced to announce that the regulations would not come into effect as planned. In other words, it's ‘business as usual’, for the time being.
   If you have questions about US patent regulations you are welcome to ask your regular contact person at Ström and Gulliksson or ask one of our other patent attorneys. We are, of course, following these developments closely so as to provide all of our clients with the best advice possible.

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