Intellectual Property Magazine
Managing to patent?
Reddie and Grose’s Pete Sadler and Alex Cope examine how to protect database management systems at the EPO
Pete Sadler and Alex Cope - Reddie & Grose
We have seen quite a bit of activity from the European PatentOffice (EPO) in recent months in relation to the patentability
of computerimplemented inventions. In March 2021, the Enlarged Board of Appeal issued itsdecision on the patentability of
simulation-based inventions. In this samemonth the Guidelines for Examination were updated to include a new section, GII 3.6.4,
1 on database management systems and information retrieval.Here we discuss the changes to the guidelines and consider the overall
filingand grant rates for the inventions that these changes relate to.