Strafford Webinar | Managing Priority Between U.S. and European Patents: Minimizing Ownership, Same Invention, Scope, and Other Risks

Fish Principals Peter Fasse and Moritz Ammelburg will speak in a Strafford webinar, “Managing Priority Between U.S. and European Patents: Minimizing Ownership, Same Invention, Scope, and Other Risks,” on Thursday, July 29.

Strafford’s staff of attorneys works closely with their 24 distinguished, practice-specific Advisory Boards to develop highly focused, timely, content-rich continuing legal education and continuing professional education webinars. Panel details are below.

Managing Priority Between U.S. and European Patents: Minimizing Ownership, Same Invention, Scope, and Other Risks

Thursday, July 29 | 1- 2:30PM ET

While protecting patentable inventions in both the U.S. and Europe is the foundation of many patent portfolios, priority arrangements in the U.S. canchallenge obtaining patent protectionin Europe. This problem was highlighted by the European Patent Office’s (EPO) ruling on the CRISPR gene-editing patent last year.

The issue of priority was front and center in the EPO’s Board of Appeal 2020 decision in the patent dispute over the rights to commercialize CRISPR technology. The Board held that the Broad Institute of MIT’s European patent be revoked after itdismissed the institution’s claims over its patent’s priority date. The Board recently published its decision, which noted that it followed EPO case law on the issue of priority and found that all applicants must be listed on both the initial and subsequent applications to be entitled to priority.

It is critical for patent counsel to understand where thepotential risks, whether related to ownership, same invention, or broad vs. narrow scope, may arise when preparing and filing patent applications in the U.S. or EU.

Listen as our authoritative panel of patent attorneys examines priority arrangements and patent protection in the U.S. and EU. The panel will discuss the differences between the jurisdictions and the potential pitfalls applicants may encounter, including disparities over ownership which pose some of the biggest risks. The panel will address how to avoid or overcome these challenges and offer best practices for patent filings to avoid priority issues and ensure protection in both the U.S. and EU.

The panel will review these and other high-priority issues:

• What are the differences between the U.S. and European approaches to priority?
• What are the considerations for patent counsel drafting U.S. applications when patent protection in Europe is anticipated or desired?
• What are the potential risks that counsel may need to overcome when drafting U.S. or EU patent applications to maximize protection?

Speakers:

• Peter Fasse, Principal, Fish & Richardson
• Moritz Ammelburg, Principal, Fish & Richardson