Chemical Inventions Before the EPO

Chemical innovation rarely fits neatly into a single compound or structure. More often, it lives in ranges, properties, and measurable characteristics, which makes claiming it before the European Patent Office a distinct challenge.

The next installment of the SLW Chemistry and Biology Series, “Chemical Inventions Before the EPO,” takes on the key questions practitioners face when protecting chemical inventions at the EPO. Guest speaker Dr. Christian Gärtner, Partner at Prüfer & Partner, joins moderator Ryan Connell to work through several core themes. The session opens with when an invention can be characterized by parameters and what the EPO requires for those parameters to hold up. From there, it turns to clarity and measurement: when a claim relies on a parameter, the method and conditions of measurement must appear in the claim itself, in the description it references, or already be known to the skilled person. Get this wrong, and an otherwise strong claim can lose its footing.

The discussion also covers Markush formulae, including how they define classes of chemical compounds and the selection rules that govern choosing sub-generic groups within them, along with unity requirements and the tradeoffs between product, process, system and use claims.

Whether you’re drafting new applications or defending existing ones, this session gives you a sharper read on how the EPO evaluates chemical claims, and how to build yours to withstand scrutiny.