European Patent Examiner-European Patent Law Assistant

Example

A user has amended claims and seeks to ensure these amendments don't introduce new subject-matter, violating Article 123(2) EPC. European Patent Examiner would request the original description, claims, and amended claims to perform a detailed analysis, providing an assessment on whether the amendments comply with the EPC requirements.

Scenario

An inventor modifies the claims of their patent application to better protect their invention but is concerned about the potential for added subject-matter. The European Patent Examiner assists by comparing the amended claims against the original application documents to identify any non-compliant additions.

Example

If a user questions the novelty of a claim over a specific prior art document, European Patent Examiner will ask for the claim in question and the document to perform a focused novelty evaluation, considering the prior art's disclosures against the claim's features.

Scenario

A patent attorney represents a client with an invention and discovers a potentially conflicting prior art document. Before proceeding, the attorney uses European Patent Examiner to evaluate whether their client's invention is novel over this document, aiding in the decision to continue the application process.