Congratulations to our Opposition and Appeal section for successfully maintaining FEI's European patent EP1394834 following lengthy opposition and appeal proceedings. The patent was granted in 2007 for a very gentle method of milling a biological sample using sublimation. An opposition was filed later the same year at the European Patent Office (EPO), requesting a complete revocation.
After 3 years, the Opposition Division agreed that the patent was valid. However, the opponent filed appeal T1123/10.
After an oral hearing in July 2016, the Board of Appeal confirmed that the decision was correct and the patent was maintained as granted.
FEI was represented in the written and oral proceedings by Pete Pollard, who has many years of experience in both oppositions and appeals. The other members of our Opposition and Appeal section are Sander van Rijnswou, Tanja la Cour Hoekstra, Karel Riem, Roel van Woudenberg and Jelle Hoekstra. Some of them are also tutors helping EQE candidates pass the C (Opposition) and D (Legal) papers.
P.S. The EPO is currently taking steps to speed up the opposition process to avoid such long delays in the future.
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