DEPOSIT OF BIOLOGICAL MATERIAL – IMPACT ON VALIDITY OF PRIORITY CLAIM

In decision T107/09, the competent EPO Technical Board of Appeal 3.3.04 provided important guidance with respect to the timely deposit of biological material in order to fulfill the „same invention“ requirement when assessing the validity of a priority claim.

The case concerned European patent 0 555 880 B1 relating to ligands for the CD40CR receptor. Claim 1 as granted reads:

  • A soluble ligand which comprises at least a binding portion of an immunoglobulin molecule, in which the immunoglobulin molecule is capable of competitively inhibiting the binding of monoclonal antibody MR1 as produced by a hybridoma cell line deposited with the ATCC and assigned accession number HB 11048, to CD40CR molecule […].

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