Category: Patent Prosecution – International

    By Kwame Mensah — Last month, the Director-General of Thailand’s Department of Intellectual Property, Ms. Puangrat Asavapisit,  announced that the Thailand National Legislative Assembly had unanimously voted to become a member of the Paris Convention and Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).  Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has now begun legal proceedings on the accession…

    By Jason Derry — The Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation (EPO) recently decided to amend the rules relating to fees that may substantially increase filing costs for certain European patent applications.  In December, the EPO announced that it will increase the fees for all claims in excess of 15, effective April…

    By Donald Zuhn — The European Patent Office (EPO) announced today that the London Agreement will go into force as of May 1, 2008.  Under the London Agreement, which was adopted last fall (nearly seven years after being ratified by the Agreement’s initial signatories), certain EPC contracting states have agreed to waive the…

    By Robert Dailey — Norway will become the 33rd member of the European Patent Organization on January 1, 2008.  Therefore, any European patent applications filed on or after January 1, 2008 may designate Norway as a contracting state. No retroactive designations will be permitted.  Nevertheless, the EPO will accord applications filed in December…

    By Donald Zuhn — On Monday, the European Patent Office (EPO) announced that patent filings rose by 5% in 2006, jumping from 197,400 in 2005 to 207,300 in 2006.  While the proportion of filings originating from the 32 EPO member states fell from 49.6% to 48.5%, the number of filings originating from the…