Back To The Future – Priority And T 577/11

The EPO's Board of Appeal has clarified the position with respect to the applicant's right to claim priority in recently published decision T 577/11.

The case concerns an appeal by the patent proprietor against the revocation of their European Patent No. 1540227. The patent in question was based on the European regional phase application of International Patent Application PCT/EP2003/009870 filed on 6 September 2003 in the name of Tenaris Connections AG, a Dutch corporation.

Significantly, however, the International application claimed priority from Italian Patent Application No. RM2002A000445 filed in the name of Tenaris Connections BV, a Liechtenstein corporation.

A patent assignment agreement between Tenaris Connections AG and Tenaris Connections BV was executed on 9 September 2003 – some three days after the end of the Paris Convention deadline – and included a clause giving retrospective effect to the assignment back to the beginning of January that year.