The concept of "plausibility" is used to test the quality of information that a patent application must contain to support valid claims. A significant divergence between the way the UK courts apply the concept, and the way the European Patent Office and Courts in other European jurisdictions may apply the concept, has arisen following last year's opinion of the Enlarged Board of Appeal in G 2/21 (Sumitomo). European Courts interpret the opinion as allowing patentees to rely on "post published information" (information that is not contained in the patent application, nor the state of the art) to support assertions in a patent application that their invention delivers a benefit or solves a technical problem. On the other hand, the UK Supreme Court has made it clear that patentees cannot rely on post published information in this way.
The concept of plausibility, and the divergence between the UK and Europe, is discussed in detail in an article by Justin Lambert, which has been published in the Stockholm Intellectual Property Law Review (Volume 6, Issue 1).
Read the full article.