News and Publications

Proposal for unitary Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) released

The EU Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) system is set to undergo reform as the European Commission has proposed the introduction of unitary SPCs for medicinal and plant protection product...

UPC’s presiding judges announced

The Presidium of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) has released its decision on the appointment of presiding judges for the Court's first instance divisions. At a local division typically a panel of t...

Decision G 2/21 is out!

The Enlarged Board of Appeal has issued its decision in G 2/21, which will have a significant impact on the role of plausibility in assessing sufficiency of disclosure and inventive step both at th...

HOFFMANN EITLE Quarterly Newsletter 3/23

Dear Colleagues and Friends, In this first issue of the Hoffmann Eitle Quarterly for 2023, we begin by concluding our four-part series on the patenting of computer-implemented inventions and artif...

UPC Sunrise Period starts

The UPC 3-month sunrise period starts today! Now you can request a delay of the decision to grant European patents, optionally with an advance request for unitary effect, as well as register Opt-O...

Germany deposited its instrument of ratification of the UPC Agreement

Today, the German government deposited its instrument of ratification of the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (UPCA) with the European Council, which triggers the official entry into force of th...

First training for all UPC appointed judges

In January and early February, the Advanced preparatory training for all judges appointed to the Unified Patent Court, as well as an internal rules and practice training for staff from the differen...

HOFFMANN EITLE welcomes new partner to the London office

We are pleased to announce that David Miller has joined the firm as a partner in the biotechnology team, based in the London office. David brings over 15 years of practice in the field of patent l...

HOFFMANN EITLE Quarterly Newsletter 12/22

Dear Colleagues and Friends, In this issue of the Hoffmann Eitle Quarterly, we continue with our series of articles addressing patenting computer-implemented inventions and artificial intelligence...

Start of the UPC Sunrise Period postponed to March 1, 2023

The start of the sunrise period, i.e. the three month period preceding the actual start of the Unified Patent Court (UPC), has been postponed by two months and is now scheduled for March 1, 2023. (...