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EPO’s decision on claim interpretation ends decades-long drift in patent law

By Inbar Preiss ( June 25, 2025, 13:33 GMT | Comment) -- The European Patent Office has reaffirmed that patent claim interpretation must always consider the description and drawings, as its top board overturned a “primacy of the claim” doctrine that stretches back decades. The outcome is legal alignment with national courts and the UPC, with greater clarity for how patents will be assessed across jurisdictions.A patent description and drawings must always be used to interpret claims, according to a landmark European Patent Office decision last week, in a move that has rerouted a drift in the way that European patents have been examined and challenged for decades....

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