Priority A Priority For The EPO EBA This Week – G1/15

This week the EPO Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBA) will hear the case G 1/15, a referral under Art 112(1)(a) EPC by the Technical Board of Appeal  T 0557/13 regarding patent number EP0921183 known as the "Partial priority" case.  "Partial Priority" is a controversial  subject – almost 40 amicus curiae briefs  giving view points on the case submitted by a variety of IP firms, IP bodies and industry have been filed on the case.  

A number of older, but more common EPO decisions, as well as at least two judgments of the English courts, have followed a strict interpretation of "clearly defined alternative subject matters".  However, more recent decisions have supported a broader interpretation. Due to these diverging conclusions on the same question of how to interpret the condition referred to in historic EPO case law (G2/98), the matter has now been referred to the EPO EBA.  For patentees, and practitioners, who can experience little uniformity in the approach of the