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In EUROPEAN PATENT LAW At the European Patent Office (EPO), the requirement that an invention is susceptible of an industrial application has generally been taken to be more or less automatically fulfilled but recent decisions of the Boards of Appeal of the EPO have seen this requirement analysed in new detail. In decision T870/04 it was held that the mere fact that a substance can be made in some way does not necessarily mean that the requirements of are fulfilled, unless there is also some "profitable use" for which the substance can be employed. Decision T 870/04 The industrial application requirement is related to the requirement of Sufficiency Of Disclosure , i.e. the fact that a "patent application must disclose the invention in a manner sufficiently clear and complete for it to be carried out by a Person Skilled In The Art ". "''In T 541/96 the board noted that according to Art. 52(1) EPC a European patent could be granted for an invention which was, inter alla, susceptible of industrial application. This concept was related to the obligation on an applicant to give a sufficient description of the invention, as required by Art. 83 EPC. An invention or an application for a patent for an alleged invention which would not comply with the generally accepted laws of physics would be incompatible with the requirements of Art. 57 EPC and Art. 83 EPC because it could not be used and therefore lacked industrial application. The description would moreover be insufficient to the extent that the applicant would not be able to describe how it could be made to work.''" ''Case Law of the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office'' , Fourth Edition, December 2001, Page 143. RELATIONSHIP WITH UNITED STATES PATENT LAW The Utility is a more or less corresponding requirement in US patent law, but different however. REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS
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