Double patenting

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Double patenting is the protection of one single invention by two patents usually owned by the same proprietor. "It is an accepted principle in most patent systems that two patents cannot be granted to the same applicant for one invention". [1]

In Europe, it has been decided that there is no explicit legal basis for this principle.[2] However, the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO), in decisions G 1/05 and G 1/06 of June 2007, accepted that

"the principle of prohibition of double patenting exists on the basis that an applicant has no legitimate interest in proceedings leading to the grant of a second patent for the same subject-matter if he already possesses one granted patent therefor. [3]

The Board therefore accepted the practice of the EPO "that amendments to a divisional application are objected to and refused when the amended divisional application claims the same subject-matter as a pending parent application or a granted parent patent." [3]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Guidelines for Examination in the European Patent Office, C IV 7.4
  2. ^ Double Jeopardy And European Patents, Boult Wade Tennant web site, April 2001
  3. ^ a b Decision G 1/05 of the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the EPO, Reasons 13.4.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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