Jornada: European Patents in Biomedicine
Patents in Biomedicine
Examiners working in the field of Biotechnology will introduce the European Patent Office (EPO) and give an overview of the procedure during Search and Examination. Relevant issues concerning the patentability of inventions, in particular in the area of Biotechnology, will be presented. Specific examples, including the patenting of proteins, nucleic acids, antibodies, as well as therapeutic and diagnostic applications, will be given, making reference to recent decisions of the Boards of Appeal at EPO. The talk will also cover latest developments and changes in the procedure for European Patents, also those filed through the international route via PCT.
Date: Thursday 1st October 2015
Time: 09:30h a 11:00h
Location: Sala Polivalent of Eureka building
Language: English
Speakers
Kirsten Niebuhr-Ebel studied Biology at the Universities of Hannover and Braunschweig. During her PhD research at the German Research Center for Biotechnology in Braunschweig she worked on the interaction of pathogenic bacteria with the host cell cytoskeleton and finished her thesis in 1994 with highest honor (summa cum laude). She continued her project as a postdoc, which resulted in several high-ranking publications and in a patent application. In 1997 she obtained an EMBO long-term fellowship, which she spent at the Pasteur Institute in Paris working on the interference of pathogenic bacteria with host cell signalling. Since 2001, she has been working as a Patent Examiner at the EPO in Munich carrying out search and substantive examination in the field of Biotechnology.
Jaime Madruga studied Biology at the University of Seville (ES), getting several honours and a fellowship for further training at the Imperial cancer Research Found (ICRF, London, UK) and the Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP, Vienna, AT). He then started his Ph.D research at IMP on cellular and molecular aspects of hematopoietic cell differentiation, especially on antigen-presenting dendritic cells and cancer-related genes. He followed the studies at the Max-Delbrück Centre for Molecular Biology (MDC, Berlin, DE) under the supervision of Prof. Martin Zenke and Carlos Martínez and in 1999 he obtained a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Madrid (Universidad Autónoma, ES). In this period, he was author of several publications in specialised journals and filed two patent applications. In 2001, Jaime Madruga started working at the European Patent Office in The Hague (NL) as a Patent Examiner carrying out the search and examination in several areas of Biotechnology. In 2006, Mr. Madruga moved to the EPO office in Munich (DE), where he continues working in search, examination and opposition of European Patents; he was a coach for new examiners and represented EPO at several international events.
Heike Voigt-Ritzer studied Biology at the Universities of Tübingen in Germany. In 1991 she spend one year abroad at the San Diego State University, USA. During her PhD research at the Pasteur Institute in Paris she worked on the cytoskeleton of Entamoeba histolytica and finished her thesis in 1999. She was holder of a Boehringer Ingelheim PhD fellowship.As a postdoc she went to the University of Lausanne in Switzerland to work on the TH1/TH2 immune response in the mouse model of Leishmania major. Her scientific work resulted in high-ranking publications. Since 2002, she has been working as a Patent Examiner at the EPO in Munich carrying out search and substantive examination in the field of Biotechnology.