Guidance

Examining patent applications for medical inventions

These guidelines set out how the IPO examines patent applications for medical inventions.

• From: Intellectual Property Office
• Published: 30 April 2016
• Last updated: 27 October 2023
  Show all updates

  1. 27 October 2023

     Updated guidelines from September 2021 to July 2023.

  2. 25 November 2021

     This update to the Guidelines includes extensive changes to the chapter on Second Medical Use, and also significant changes in the following chapters: Therapy, Surgery, Diagnosis, Multi-step methods involving a surgical, therapeutic or diagnostic step, Apparatus and devices for surgery, therapy or diagnosis, First medical use, and Claims to pharmaceutical compositions.

  3. 14 October 2016

     HTML publication added.

  4. 30 April 2016

     First published.

Documents

Examination guidelines for patent applications relating to medical inventions in the Intellectual Property Office

HTML

Details

This guide covers:

• basic principles
• methods of treatment or diagnosis
• therapy
• surgery
• diagnosis
• multi-step methods involving a surgical, therapeutic or diagnostic step
• apparatus for surgery, therapy or diagnosis
• first medical use
• second medical use
• claims to pharmaceutical substances and compositions
• index of course cases and IPO decisions
• index of European Patent Office decisions