Article 127 - OJ 2003, 23

Notice from the European Patent Office dated 18 December 2002 concerning a new tool for use with the European Patent Register online

- OJ 2003, 23 -

As part of the epoline® project, the Office has expanded the Online European Patent Register service to include a new Java application known as WebRegPro. WebRegPro allows users to compare data from user-defined lists of application and publication numbers downloaded from the European Patent Register and identify changes in the procedural data relating to the applications on the list.

WebRegPro has been developed to allow users to monitor the status of selected EP and Euro-PCT patent applications and to track procedural changes by comparing concatenated text files downloaded on different days.

With the introduction of this latest development, the Online European Patent Register now provides all the function that were available via the X.25 service, including the display of the most recent event in the European grant procedure and the event history. In addition, WebRegPro allows users to download bulk data in order to detect changes which have occurred in the European patent grant procedure.

WebRegPro is free of charge and works with Windows® operating systems only.

WebRegPro can be ordered from the epoline® Web site at www.epoline.org. Additional information is available under

www.epoline.org/webregpro.htm.

Information from the Online European Patent Register can be obtained by telephone from epoline® Customer Services:

epoline® Customer Services

European Patent Office

Patentlaan-2 NL - 2288 EE Rijswijk

Tel.: (+31-70) 340 4500

Fax: (+31-70) 340 4600

e-mail: epoline@epo.org

Internet: www.epoline.org

epoline® Customer Services can be contacted from Monday to Fritay, 08.00 to 18.00 hrs.