EAPO examiners took part in the training seminar “Novelty and Inventive Step – Advanced Level”, organized by the EPO Academy in Munich, Germany on March 27 – 29, 2019.

Representatives of the national patent offices of Bulgaria, Hungary, Ireland, Spain, China, Lithuania, Morocco, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Taiwan, Turkey, France, and Estonia also attended the event.

The seminar was intended for experienced patent examiners, included systematic review and overview of EPO case law and EPO approaches to the assessment of novelty and inventive step, as well as practical examples based on EPO applications.

Cases of novelty assessment, determining the prior art, applying the principles of inventive step assessment using the problem-solution approach, the definition of a “person skilled in the art” and obviousness criteria, and other practical cases were considered in detail under the supervision of the EPO examiners.