The revised version of the European Patent Convention (EPC 2000) will enter into force on December 13, 2007. The new version includes new Rules facilitating the prosecution of European Patent Applications.
For your information we would like to summarize the most relevant changes:
1. The priority of a WTO member may be claimed according to the new Rules, not only the priority of a Paris Convention member state. This concerns for instance Taiwanese patent applications, whose priority may be claimed effectively in the future.
2. Translations of priority documents will only have to be filed if the priority application has not been filed in an official language of the European Patent Office and the effectiveness of the priority claim proves to be relevant in the examination procedure. Until now, a translation of a priority document always had to be filed, irrespective of whether the contents of the priority document had to be considered in the examination proceedings.
3. According to the EPC 2000 a priority claim may be made or amended within 16 months after the earliest claimed priority date. Formerly, the correct priority claim had to be made at the same time when filing the European Patent Application.
4. Within a two-months term after the filing date missing parts of the Application may still be filed without obtaining a new (later) application date, provided that the priority of an earlier application is claimed and the missing parts of the description and the missing drawings, respectively, are completely contained in the earlier application.
5. In order to obtain an application date, it will not be necessary any more to file any patent claim. Therefore, there will be the possibility to file European patent applications as provisional applications without drafting any claim.
6. An application may be filed in any language (also non EU language). A translation has to be filed within 2 months from the application date.
7. According to Rule 40(1)(c) EPC it will be possible in the future to file a European patent application by only referring to a previous application. Hereby, it is only necessary to state the application date, the application number and the filing office of the previous application. It will be possible to only refer to the description and possible drawings or it can contain a declaration that also the patent claims shall be replaced by it (Rule 57c EPC). If a corresponding application is filed by reference, a certified copy of the previous application will have to be filed within two months. If the previous application is not present in one of the official languages of the European Patent Office (i.e. German, English or French), a translation into one of these languages will have to be filed within the same deadline.
If the certified copy and the translation are not filed within the deadline, the European Patent Office asks the applicant to make up for it within a term of two months. Therefore, an overall term of at least four months after the filing day in which the certified copy of the application as well as a possible translation have to be filed is given. In case these deadlines are missed, there is no possibility of subsequent treatment, but only of reinstatement.
8. The European Patent Office will make use of new legal remedies concerning expired terms and loss of right. According to the new Rules, further proceedings may be considered in most cases when missing expired terms. Until now in most cases only a reinstatement had been admissible as a remedy, but the preconditions for an admissible reinstatement are very strict.
9. With the effectiveness of EPC 2000, the Patent Owner will have the possibility to limit or to revoke a granted European Patent.
10. Concerning decisions of the Board of Appeal, a petition for review of the decision of the Board of Appeal by the Enlarged Board of Appeal may be filed in the future.
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