EPC 2000 : Changes In European Patent Law

A revised version of the European Patent Convention (EPC 2000) will enter into force on 13 December 2007. Amendments will affect many aspects of the European proceedings, the followings being in our view of particular relevance to the practitioners and applicants: Filing of European patent applications The requirements for the accordance of a date of filing become less restrictive: - a European patent application may be in any language, even if it is not an official language of a state party to the EPC (Article 14(2)). - filing merely a reference to a previously filed application (filing date and number) instead of a description and drawings is sufficient (Rule 40(1)(c) and (2)). Furthermore, contrary to current practice, the content of a priority document may be used to complete the description and drawings without loss of the filing date. In radical contradiction with the current practice of the European Office, the content of a priority document may now be used for re-incorporating missing parts of the description or drawings, without loss of the date of filing (Rule 56(3)). Legal remedies for the non-observance of time limits The scope of application of further processing (Art. 121) has been broadened to make it applicable to most non-observed time limits. As a notable example, the 31-month period for entry in the European phase of an international application will thus be extendable for two additional months by further processing. Conversely, the scope of application of re-establishment of rights (Art. 122) is essentially restricted to time limits for which further processing is not available, provided it can be proven that all due care was taken to observe the time limit. Of note, re-establishment of rights will be available when missing the priority date. Review of Boards of Appeal decisions Decisions from the Boards of Appeal will be liable to be subjected, based on a limited number of grounds however, to a review by the Enlarged Board of Appeal (Art. 112a), which is thus instated as a third degree of jurisdiction. Limitation of a patent A centralized ex parte procedure will be introduced according to which the proprietor of a European patent can file a request before the EPO, for the patent to be ab initio revoked or limited by an amendment of its claims (Art. 105a and b). Pascal Cordier and Lionel Vial