New funding for EPO’s academic research programme

The European Patent Office has announced the new funding for the “ARP – Academic Research Program“.
Proposals may be submitted by individual research institutes or groups of institutes. In the case of a group of institutes, proposals may come from anywhere in the world, provided that the contracting partner (project leader) is based in a member state of the European Patent Organisation. There are no nationality requirements either for the principal researcher or for co-researchers.
The EPO has therefore published the application form and the integrated guidelines for the submission of projects.

Food labelling: ministerial guidelines for the emergency situation of COVID-19

The Italian Ministry of Economic Development issued a recommendation on temporary business support measures for new food labelling requirements. In particular, following the adoption of the urgent measures concerning the containment and management of the epidemiological emergency by COVID-19, companies in the food sector are authorized to use the stocks of labels and packaging materials already ordered before the date of application of EU Regulation No. 2018/775, as well as before the date of publication of the decrees extending the national decrees on the mandatory origin labelling of wheat in pasta, rice, tomato and milk, which are currently being adopted.

WIPO: news for the “Patentscope” database

The World Intellectual Property Organization has made available in recent days a new search function in the patent database “Patentscope” with the aim of facilitating the retrieval of information contained in published patent documents that could be useful to inventors developing new technologies to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Thanks to the new function, the database will provide scientists, engineers, public health policy makers, stakeholders and the general public with an easily accessible source of information to improve disease detection, prevention and treatment.