• Patents
• About us
• Topics

Print version.

Promotion

Revocation of “umbilical cord blood” patent upheld

Munich, 7 April 2003 - A technical board of appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) has upheld the revocation of the US firm Biocyte’s European patent describing inter alia the use of umbilical cord blood. The board ruled that the subject matter of the claims defended by the patent proprietor was not new vis-à-vis the state of the art and as such failed to meet the novelty requirement under Article 54 of the European Patent Convention. Patent EP 343217 had previously been revoked in EPO opposition proceedings in 1999. The patent proprietor lodged an appeal against the opposition division's decision.