Antibodies In The European Patent Office - Basic Principles

Over recent years, antibodies have become increasingly important as therapeutic drugs and large numbers of patent applications are filed in this area (>1000 granted by the European Patent Office (EPO) in 2019). Whilst patentability is assessed in the same way as for any other invention, the high volume of cases means that examiners have developed standardised approaches to assessing “antibody-specific” issues. These informal principles have been formalised in a dedicated section of the EPO's Guidelines for Examination (G, 11, 5.6; issued March 2021 and revised in March 2022).

This briefing provides an introduction to possible claim types for antibody inventions, and also looks at how such claims will be considered by the EPO. The briefing also considers portfolio building to maximise the scope of protection for an antibody invention. We have focussed on therapeutic antibodies, but similar considerations apply to antibodies used in other applications, such as