PAOC Meeting

EPPC’s special interest group on pharma applications held its annual meeting with the Directors of the Cluster concerned with Pure and Applied Organic Chemistry (PAOC) in Munich on 16 May 2017.

The examiners in this Cluster deal primarily with pharmaceutical chemistry but also with cosmetics and similar subjects as well as subjects overlapping with biotechnology. The EPO regards this meeting as very important, as can be seen from the fact that the meeting was attended by one Principle Director, one Director of Operations, 8 Directors and two Senior Experts. They were very well briefed and provided some very useful guidance on a number of topics. There were also 11 people from epi, including our President.

The organiser of this meeting, Ruurd Jorritsma, gathered a number of topics and designated one of epi’s members to present each topic. These were sent to the EPO well in advance so that the EPO could prepare for the meeting. As a new feature this year, the EPO sent a number of topics to us for our comments. All these topics were discussed very frankly and we are grateful to the EPO for such good discussions.

The topics discussed included Article 53(c) in relation to methods of using a sub-assembly, non-surgical methods and the difference between cosmetic and therapeutic uses, PCT searches for methods of treatment, plausibility in pharma cases, Article 123(2) in relation to combining dependent claims and ranges, toxic priorities, procedural matters, both in general and specifically relating to opposition procedures, amendment of the description and unity of invention. A full report of the meeting will be made available as soon as possible.

If you have any questions relating to PAOC you would like raised at the next meeting, please send an email to eppc@patentepi.org.