Editorial
M. Névant (FR), Editorial Committee
Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!
Winter is coming! At this time of year, Christmas songs naturally come to mind, in particular the song that accompanies the end credits of the movie “Die Hard” (of which I am a die-hard fan): Let it snow! Who knows that this song was written in July 1945, recorded by Vaughn Monroe, and released just after Thanksgiving that year, becoming a hit by Christmas? The song was covered by many artists, including Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra (I can already hear my younger colleagues say: WHO??).
Back to business (or patents shall I say), the past few months have seen a tug-of-war between the Industry Patent Quality Chapter (IPQC) and the European Patent Office. The former implicitly reproaching the latter for issuing patents that would not be robust enough, which might harm the European industry. Is that really so?
It may happen that EPO Examiners miss during examination a piece of prior art which is detrimental to novelty or inventive step. While such a situation is quite unfortunate, it can nonetheless be remedied in post-grant proceedings. By contrast, challenging in post-grant proceedings granted claims which contravene Article 84 EPC is virtually impossible. Are Applicants, including those from IPQC, ready to take action and stop seeking to secure such broad claims which are unclear/unsupported by the description? And are EPO Examiners ready to spend more time on clarity/support issues? Time will tell if future patents granted by the EPO reflect the real contribution of inventions to the state of the art (which I believe is hardly the case these days).
In any event, we should (always) look on the bright side of life. We, as professional representatives, are lucky to interact with the best Patent Office in the World. As we say in French, criticism is easy, but art is difficult. Hence Applicants should also be self-critical.
