Patenting Antibody Pharmaceuticals at the EPO

Antibody therapeutics remain a rapidly developing field, with many antibody-based therapies now on the market and in the clinic. Patenting of antibodies, particularly for known targets, is proving increasingly challenging as the field becomes more crowded and practice tightens up. Although (perhaps surprisingly) there is still a relative lack of case law from the Boards of Appeal of the EPO, the decisions that have issued recently are consistent with the basic principles applied by examiners in their day-to-day practice. This webinar will explore those basic principles, making use of the significant experience of J A Kemp’s attorneys in handling antibody prosecution and oppositions at the European Patent Office, as well as our discussions with EPO examiners, highlighting recent trends in examination and strategies for drafting new cases and for addressing objections to existing applications.

Topics include:

• Can broad antibody claims still be obtained?
• Writing robust claims around specific antibody drug candidates
• Inventive step when the target is known
• What data to provide to support inventive step
• USPTO and EPO practice: divergent or convergent?
• Epitope/competition claims, combinations/cocktails, bispecifics and other non-traditional binder formats
• Other routes to patentability