Surgical and other exceptions to patentability

The title's not very cute, but at least when you see a publication called The Exclusion of Surgical, Therapeutic and Diagnostic Inventions from Patentability Under Article 52(4) of the European Patent Convention you know what you're getting.

Right: the IPKat scans the EPO website for fresh decisions on Art.52(4)

This is a report prepared for the Intellectual Property Institute (IPI) by Florian Leverve (co-author of Sweet & Maxwell's loose-leaf reference work European Patent Decisions and a researcher at the Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute) together with IPKat team member Jeremy.

The report comprises 28 pages of A4, handsomely soft-bound in the IPI's distinctive blue-and-white colour scheme, and it costs £30, inclusive of postage and packaging. The ISBN is 978 1 874001 95 9. You can order the report from the IPI here.

Left: both being a little hard of hearing, Mr Smith and Woofles were unsure whether the lady said it was the pet or the vet that she wanted neutered

Florian and Jeremy are doing a double-act on this very subject in the afternoon of next Wednesday, 16 April, in an IPI seminar hosted by London-based solicitors Olswang. For seminar details click here. The event is free (unlike the report), but you have to email the IPI first so they know you're coming. And, says Merpel, so that they can keep you on their mailing list for ever and ever and ever ...