Report of the Committee on Biotechnological Inventions
Below is a summary of discussion points in our Biotechnology Committee (BC) since the last Q1_2024 report:
1. EPO – Meeting with DG1
Members of the Biotech Committee who attended the EPPC / BC meeting between DG1 and epi held in The Hague last 28 February reported that the meeting was conducted in a cooperative and constructive atmosphere with significant representation from the European Patent Office (EPO) Directors, demonstrating the EPO’s commitment to the discussions.
On the subject of SEQ Listings, the BC’s representatives attending in person attempted to present a PowerPoint presentation with technical information but was unable to do so due the structure of the meeting. It is reported that it would be possible to propose a separate independent meeting with Biotech representatives from the EPO to further discuss Biotech matters. Chris Mercer (GB) proposed to introduce Simon WRIGHT to Razik Menidjel, Chief Operating Officer Operations form the EPO and working closely with EPO Vice-President Stephen Rowan, to organize that meeting. This is ongoing. Simon WRIGHT met with Sonke Holtdorf at the EPO in the Hague last Monday to help facilitate the F“F meeting.
The immediate next step agreed by the BC is to arrange a dedicated BC / DG1 meeting with Biotech representatives from the EPO through to Razik Menidjel. A face-to-face meeting should take place in the next Oct. 2024. The agenda has been discussed the last 10 June and need to be finalized. BC indicated the following points of interest for the future agenda: Sequence Listings ST26, in particular the practical implementation at the EPO; NGT plants; WIPO Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge; Adaptation of the description and Antibodies and Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CAR) examination practice.
Furthermore, during the last in person BC meeting in Barcelona (16 April 2024), BC’s members also discussed the complaint process at the EPO and it has been suggested to initiate a standardized, constructive complaint process, a kind of “code of conduct” on how to handle complaint at the EPO. When you’re contacting a director directly, it might help if this director has a good way of communicating that in his team and has an attitude to try to improve that but it’s not always the case. This approach aims to create a productive complaint culture without causing issues for examiners and ultimately affecting applicants who fear to file complaints.
2. Education and training
During the last BC of 16 April 2024, after the great success of the 1st epi’s podcast dedicated to NGT plants, the BC agreed on the importance to continue to educate people. As a next step, a webinar is now planned on 20 November 2024 on Biotech case Law.
3. SEQ Listings
During the last BC of 16 April 2024, BC’s members were agreed epi must continue to push back at the EPO about the way the EPO has implemented the new standard ST26 and in parallel to act also with our own national patent offices to get their support. The ST26 software is written by the WIPO and not the EPO, the issue is on the way the EPO implemented it.
The BC agreed that the main issue with ST26 remains about the risk of added matter and the EPO knows that. There’s additional information in ST26 that wasn’t in in ST25. About the next action to be taken, it’s proposed to amend epi’s position paper and for each BC’s members to add any recent comments about our experience with ST26 by using as a basis the Benjamin’s information. Then the updated version will be sent to the EPO.
4. BC meeting
An in-person BC was organised on 16 April 2024 in Barcelona. Another meeting will be planned for 2024 only by Videoconference to respect the established 2024 BC’s budget. The date must be defined, it should be planned before the next C98 epi’s Council.
