1.

Two European patent applications filed with the European Patent Office (EPO) in February are so long that their publication on paper poses serious problems. One is approximately 9 000 pages long, the other more than 50 000. In both cases, the bulk of the application documents consists of a sequence listing. Under Article 93 EPC, the EPO is required to publish these applications, including their sequence listings, but to do so in paper form would involve disproportionate work and expense, and would in any case not serve the purpose of publication - public information - because interested third parties cannot establish the subject-matter of such applications from a hard-copy version.

2.

Particularly in the case of applications containing a sequence listing, the public is primarily interested in having an electronic version, this being the only form users can work with efficiently. To meet the needs of the public, and its own, the EPO is therefore making it possible to publish, in electronic form only, applications which, on filing, contain a sequence listing and/or over 400 pages. At present, that means publication on esp@cenet® or ESPACE® EP CD-ROM. Applicants or third parties can, however, still request a copy of the application; the EPO will then provide it on the medium it considers the most appropriate. For shorter applications, that will still be paper, but longer ones will be provided on electronic data carriers (CD-ROM or floppy disk).

3.

The applications mentioned above will be published in electronic form only. A notice will appear in the Official Journal in due course informing readers when the same will hold true for all the European patent applications referred to in the President's decision.