Case law of the EPO Boards of Appeal in 2006

Legal context: The article reviews significant decisions handed down by theBoards of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) in 2006,concentrating on decisions of the Enlarged Board and the Boardsof Appeal issued in 2006 and published or to be published inthe OJ EPO. Key points: The article discusses the application of Art. 24 EPC on exclusionand objection to members of the boards of appeal in the lightof the following decisions: G 1/05, T 281/03 and J 15/04; referralspending before the EBA on the subject of divisional applications(Art. 76 EPC and R. 25 EPC) and exclusion from patentabilityunder R. 23d(c) in conjunction with Art. 53a EPC; and decisionsof technical boards of appeal on exclusions from patentability(Arts. 52 (2)(3) and (4) EPC), the requirement of industrialapplicability (Art. 57 EPC) and re-establishment of rights (Art.122 EPC). Practical significance: The article provides an overview of the 2006 case law of theboards of appeal which is particularly useful since most ofthe decisions discussed have not yet been published in the OJEPO. The author is critical of the recent case law on the applicationof Art. 24 EPC (exclusion and objection to members of the boardsof appeal) and reports on several decisions of particular legalinterest.     

The breakdown of newspeak

Many attempts have been made to create Newspeaks. But in light of what is now known about such attempts, it is clear that not even the most successful of them has come anywhere near to realization of Orwell's projection. Rather than these Newspeaks becoming increasingly fine‐tuned, comprehensive instruments of totalitarian control, as suggested in 1984, quite an opposite development has taken place. The peoples upon whom Newspeaks have been imposed have learned to live with and manipulate these artificial languages, and their effectiveness has declined rather than increased over time. The present paper explores this degeneration of Newspeak, examining some of the assumptions about language, man, and society underlying Orwell's picture of the future. It makes explicit the theory of totalitarian control based on language that is implicit in 1984 and then shows that several fundamental assumptions of this theory are patently Utopian while others are highly implausible. Apart from its rich insights into the dynamics of totalitarianism, even the Utopian elements of 1984 help us to understand better the limitations of as well as the possibilities for totalitarian control in contemporary society by placing in relief the conditions that would have to be met for such control actually to be realized. Setting forth these conditions makes clear why these conditions could never be met in reality.     

The public spheres of unprotected workers

This article examines emergent forms of political subjectivity amongst subordinate social forces, focusing on how ‘unprotected’ workers in household relations of production can become political subjects antagonistic to world order. For unprotected workers the very lack of institutional protection makes articulating political demands risky. At the same time, the need to conceptualise the manner in which the workers in the households and in proximate forms of social relations of production become political subjects is increasingly urgent. The article begins by articulating a conception of the public sphere relevant to the forms of political subjectivity examined. The argument then proceeds to situate the family in the global political economy. Next, the article examines the circulation of women between the household and proximate forms of social relations of production. It is in this circulation that unprotected workers produce potential and emergent counter-public spheres needed for the forms of political subjectivity that challenge the dominant forces in world order.