The European Patent Office (EPO) has launched new functionalities for its MyEPO services suite as part of its Strategic Plan 2028, aiming to enhance user experience and streamline the digital patent granting process. The latest release improves workflow, refines the MyEPO's design, and enables self-management options, developed in collaboration with 145 pilot companies. With two-factor authentication being required for accessing MyEPO from 1 January 2025, users are advised to upgrade access methods, as the use of smart cards will be phased out. In addition, the Webform Filing tool and the Online Filing software version 5.14 will also be discontinued from 1 January 2025.

The European Patent Office (EPO) has concluded its discussions on the 2026 EPC, PCT-EPO, and Unitary Patent Guidelines. Following the circulation of draft texts and receipt of nearly 400 user comments, the EPO provided written responses and engaged in focused dialogue on key issues. It confirmed that all three sets of guidelines will be published in PDF format and committed to improving the visibility of interim Official Journal publications. Notable developments include the introduction of new chapters detailing entry into the European phase, clarification of legal standards following decisions G 1/24 and G 2/21, and ongoing efforts to refine guidance on the patentability of antibodies and AI-related inventions. While consensus was not reached on all topics, the EPO pledged further review and consultation, with the full results to be published after presentation to the Patent Law Committee on 23 October. The revised guidelines will take effect on 1 April 2026, with a preview available in February and a subsequent public consultation.

The European Patent Office (EPO) has invited the Republic of Moldova to accede to the European Patent Convention (EPC), which, if accepted, would make it the EPC’s 40th contracting State. Before accession, Moldova must enact national legislation to facilitate the EPC’s implementation and application, during which, the EPO will fully support Moldova.

The European Patent Office (EPO) has opened a consultation seeking views on the English preview versions of the Guidelines for Examination in the European Patent Office (EPC Guidelines) and the Guidelines for Search and Examination at the European Patent Office as PCT Authority (PCT-EPO Guidelines) 2024 which will enter into force on 1 March 2024. The consultation also includes a survey on the EPO’s Guidelines revision process itself and views on what respondents consider most important for the future Unitary Patent Guidelines, which the EPO intends to publish in 2025. The deadline for response is 2 April 2024.

The European Patent Office (EPO) has initiated a public consultation to gather input for its Observatory on Patents and Technology's work plan for 2026 and 2027. The plan aims to align with Europe's transformation priorities and address current challenges in innovation. This consultation, open until 17 March, invites stakeholders, including policymakers, researchers, and the public, to help shape the Observatory's future initiatives.

The European Patent Office (EPO) has registered more than 27,000 unitary patents in the first year of the Unitary Patent system which was launched in June 2023. This averages almost one in four (23%) granted European patents apply across all participating Member States and is steadily increasing. The new Unified Patent Court (UPC), which has seen about 350 cases so far, enables centralised litigation for unitary patents, and non-unitary European patents. The European Commission also intends to create a unitary supplementary protection certificate, which will allow for the extension of unitary patent rights for specific authorised pharmaceutical and plant protection products in a unitary manner. The greatest number of unitary patents have been awarded to the medical technology sector (31%).

Law360, London: The top appeals board at the European Patent Office (EPO) has ruled that examiners must always look at the description and drawings when interpreting patents, ditching the approach of assessing a patent's claims in isolation.

Law360, London: The European Patent Office (EPO) has said it will begin running searches and giving opinions on Irish national patent applications under a new cooperation deal with Ireland's intellectual property office that took effect 1 July 2025.

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) has reported that it has arrested 14 individuals believed to have orchestrated a €195m VAT fraud scheme that spanned 17 countries. The EPPO and supporting partners, including Eurojust, Europol, HM Revenue and Customs and relevant European counterparts, carried out over 18 searches involving 680 tax and police investigators. The EPPO has also reported that investigators seized €15.3m worth of smartphones, used to perpetuate the fraud, a yacht worth €3m, around €1.2m in cash and cryptocurrency, luxury cars and jewellery and gold. The countries involved in the investigation were: Albania, Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden and the UK.

Originally the European Pressurised Reactor before becoming the Evolutionary Pressurised Reactor and now just the EPRTM: A reactor designed by AREVA, the first of which is being constructed at Olkiluoto in Finland. Others are being constructed at Flamanville in France and Taishan in China. Two EPR reactors are planned to be built at Hinkley Point C in Somerset. It is classified as a generation III+ reactor due to the level of safety and the economic savings that it achieves in relation to the earlier models. Full details of the reactor and its design can be found at www.epr-reactor.co.uk.

The European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) has published a complementary impact assessment to the European Commission’s proposal for a Directive on adapting non-contractual civil liability rules to AI (AILD), as requested by the European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs. The study has identified shortcomings in the Commission’s 2022 impact assessment, which accompanied the AILD proposal, including an incomplete exploration of regulatory policy options, not having regard to the Parliament’s 2020 resolution on liability for AI, failure to investigate the possibility of integrating strict liability with liability caps, insufficient details in exploring a wider spectrum of negligence presumptions, and an abridged cost-benefit analysis. The EPRS recommended that several key concepts from the EU AI Act are included in the AILD, categories that trigger the evidence disclosure obligations and rebuttable presumptions concerning fault and causality are added, and general-purpose AI systems are covered by the AILD. It also suggests that the AILD is expanded into a software liability regulation in order to prevent market fragmentation.

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