Welcome to our series of articles on the topic of EPO patentability in the context of clinical trials. This series is a must-read for anyone drafting, prosecuting or attacking patent applications where either a clinical trial forms part of the state of the art, or where the application relies on clinical data that might have been generated after the application filing date.
The first two articles in the series will review how the EPO deals with clinical trials as prior art, firstly looking in detail at novelty, before following-up with our second article that considers inventive step. In our third article, we will consider the admissibility of post filed data. The fourth and final article in the series will consider when and how to file a patent application based on a clinical trial such that the EPO requirements for sufficiency and inventive step are met.
Read on for our analysis of the relevant EPO case law and approach to clinical trials as prior art and stay tuned for further articles in this series.
If you enjoy our series and wish to discuss any of the related content or are interested in protecting your own innovation in these areas, do reach out to our team of experts who would be delighted to assist.
Our next installment looks at clinical trials as prior art and their impact on novelty. Read article.
Click here to access the full EPO patentability and clinical trials series.