EPO Experts Shared with Sakpatenti Staff Practical Experience in the Field of Genetic Engineering

A two-day coaching was held at the National Intellectual Property Center of Georgia – “Sakpatenti”, aimed to deepen patent examination practice of inventions based on the CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) technology and sharing international experience. The coaching was conducted in hybrid format. The session was attended by the staff members of the Chemistry-Medicine and Biology Division, Department of Inventions and New Varieties and Breeds, Sakpatenti. 

The sessions were led by EPO experts Mr. Harald Schmidt-Yodlee and Mr. Matthias Ulbrecht, who introduced to the participants the EPO’s latest approaches and assessment standards in the direction of examination of biotechnological inventions and shared practical experience.

The session was mainly focused on the assessment of inventions created using the CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) technology. The given technology is the modern mechanism of genome editing, which provides targeted, precise and controlled changes in specific sections of DNA in living organisms. Coaching covered modern approaches of genetic engineering using the CRISPR technology and targeted genome editing mechanisms, as well as practical application of the CRISPR technology in medicine and agriculture. In addition, at the session, distinctions between patentable and excluded subject-matter in the context of the European Patent Convention, transgenic vs. conventionally bred organisms, assessment criteria of the unity of invention and inventive step, and practical examples and cases from the EPO examination practice were considered.

The sessions were conducted in an interactive and discussion mode, which enabled the participants to consider in detail both technical and legal issues and ethical aspects. 

The above-mentioned topics are especially relevant at present, when genetic engineering and genome editing technologies are developing rapidly, offering us new types of biotechnological solutions. In such conditions, patent examination requires strengthening of competence and solving legal challenges. 

The coaching sessions were organized within the action plan on bilateral cooperation for 2025-2026 between the European Patent Office and Sakpatenti. The targeted sessions of this format have been conducted annually since 2024, which facilitates raising the quality of examination on the national level and strengthening of institutional capabilities.