CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.

Overview

2.

Responsibility for formalities examination

3.

Purpose of Part A

4.

Other Parts relating to formalities

CHAPTER II

FILING OF APPLICATIONS AND EXAMINATION ON FILING

1.

Where and how applications may be filed

1.1

Filing of applications directly or by post

1.2

Filing of applications by facsimile

1.3

Filing of applications in electronic form

1.4

Filing of applications by other means

1.5

Subsequent filing of documents

1.6

Cheques and debit orders

1.7

Forwarding of applications

1a.

Application numbering systems

1a.1

Applications filed before 1 January 2002

1a.2

Applications filed on or after 1 January 2002

2.

Persons entitled to file an application

3.

Procedure on filing

3.1

Receipt; confirmation

3.2

Filing with a competent national authority

4.

Examination on filing

4.1

Minimum requirements for according a date of filing

4.1.1

Indication that a European patent is sought

4.1.2

Identification of the applicant

4.1.3

Description and claims

4.1.4

Deficiencies

4.1.5

Date of filing

4.2

Further requirements

4.2.1

Filing and search fees

4.2.2

Translation

4.2.3

Application deemed to be withdrawn

4.3

Formal examination

CHAPTER III

EXAMINATION OF FORMAL REQUIREMENTS

1.

General

1.1

Formal requirements

1.2

Further checks

2.

Representation

2.1

Requirements

2.2

Non-compliance

3.

Physical requirements

3.1

General remarks

3.2

Documents making up the application, replacement documents, translations

3.3

Other documents

3.4

Signature

4.

Request for grant

4.1

General remarks

4.2

Examination of the Request for Grant form

4.2.1

Information on the applicant

4.2.2

Signature

5.

Designation of inventor

5.1

General remarks

5.2

Waiver of right to be mentioned as inventor

5.3

Designation filed in a separate document

5.4

Notification

5.5

Deficiencies

5.6

Incorrect designation

6.

Claim to priority (see also C-V)

6.1

General remarks

6.2

List of Contracting States to the Paris Convention

6.3

Multiple priorities

6.4

Examination of the priority document

6.5

Declaration of priority

6.6

Priority period

6.7

Copy of the previous application (priority document)

6.8

Translation of the previous application

6.9

Non-entitlement to right to priority

6.10

Loss of right to priority

6.11

Notification

7.

Title of the invention

7.1

Requirements

7.2

Responsibility

8.

Prohibited matter

8.1

Morality or "ordre public"

8.2

Disparaging statements

9.

Claims fee

10.

Filing of drawings

11.

Abstract

11.1

General remark

11.2

Content of the abstract

11.3

Figure accompanying the abstract

12.

Designation of Contracting States

12.1

General remarks

12.2

Designation fee; time limits

12.3

Consequences of non-payment of designation fees; period of grace

12.4

Surcharge paid insufficient

12.5

Application deemed to be withdrawn

12.6

Request for Grant form

12.7

Indication of the Contracting States

12.8

Amount payable

12.9

Withdrawal of designation

12.10

Euro-PCT applications entering the European phase

13.

Extension of European patent applications and patents to States not party to the EPC

13.1

General remarks

13.2

Time limit for payment of extension fee

13.3

Withdrawal of extension

13.4

Extension deemed requested

13.5

National register

14.

Correction of deficiencies

14.1

Procedure formalities officer

14.2

Period allowed for remedying deficiencies

CHAPTER III - Annex LIST OF CONTRACTING STATES TO THE PARIS CONVENTION (see III, 6.2)

CHAPTER IV

SPECIAL PROVISIONS

1.

European divisional applications (see also C-VI, 9.1)

1.1

General remarks

1.1.1

When may a divisional application be filed?

1.1.2

Persons entitled to file a divisional application

1.2

Date of filing of a divisional application; claiming priority

1.2.1

Date of filing

1.2.2

Claiming priority

1.3

Filing a divisional application

1.3.1

Where to file a divisional application?

1.3.2

Request for grant

1.3.3

Language requirements

1.3.4

Designation of Contracting States

1.3.5

Extension States

1.4

Fees

1.4.1

Filing, search and designation fees

1.4.2

Claims fees

1.4.3

Renewal fees

1.5

Designation of the inventor

1.6

Authorisations

1.7

Other formalities examination

1.8

Further procedure

2.

Art. 61 applications

2.1

General

2.2

Suspension of the proceedings for grant

2.3

Resumption of the proceedings for grant

2.4

Interruption of time limits

2.5

Limitation of the option to withdraw the European patent application

2.6

Prosecution of the application by a third party

2.7

Filing a new application

2.8

Refusal of the earlier application

2.9

Partial transfer of right by virtue of a final decision

3.

Display at an exhibition

3.1

Certificate of exhibition; identification of invention

3.2

Defects in the certificate or the identification

4.

Applications relating to biological material

4.1

Biological material; deposit thereof

4.2

Missing information; notification

4.3

Availability of deposited biological material to expert only

5.

Applications relating to nucleotide and amino acid sequences

6.

Conversion into a national application

CHAPTER V

COMMUNICATING THE FORMALITIES REPORT; AMENDMENT OF APPLICATION; CORRECTION OF ERRORS

1.

Communicating the formalities report

2.

Amendment of application

2.1

Filing of amendments

2.2

Examination of amendments as to formalities

3.

Correction of errors in documents filed with the EPO

CHAPTER VI

PUBLICATION OF APPLICATION; REQUEST FOR EXAMINATION AND TRANSMISSION OF THE DOSSIER TO EXAMINING DIVISION

1.

Publication of application

1.1

Date of publication

1.2

No publication; preventing publication

1.3

Content of the publication

1.4

Publication in electronic form only

1.5

Separate publication of the European search report

2.

Request for examination and transmission of the dossier to the Examining Division

2.1

Communication

2.2

Time limit for filing the request for examination

2.3

Period of grace

2.4

Transmission of the dossier to the Examining Division

2.5

Refund of examination fee

2.6

Reduction in examination fee

CHAPTER VII

APPLICATIONS UNDER THE PATENT COOPERATION TREATY (PCT) BEFORE THE EPO ACTING AS A DESIGNATED OR ELECTED OFFICE

1.

General

1.1

Introduction

1.2

Initial processing and formal examination; copy of the international application; translation

1.3

National basic fee, designation fee, request for examination, search fee and claims fees

1.4

PCT vs. EPC provisions

2.

Provisions of Chapter II ("Filing of applications and examination on filing")

3.

Provisions of Chapter III ("Examination of formal requirements")

3.1

Representation

3.2

Physical requirements

3.3

Request for grant

3.4

Designation of inventor

3.5

Claim to priority

3.6

Title of the invention

3.7

Prohibited matter

3.8

Claims fee

3.9

Drawings

3.10

Abstract

3.11

Designation fee

4.

Provisions of Chapter IV ("Special provisions")

4.1

Divisional applications

4.2

Sequence listings

5.

Provisions of Chapter VI ("Publication of application; request for examination and transmission of the dossier to Examining Division")

5.1

Publication of the international application

5.2

Request for examination

5.3

Supplementary European search

6.

Reduction and refunds of fees in respect of international (PCT) applications

CHAPTER VIII

LANGUAGES

1.

Provisions concerning the language of the proceedings

1.1

Admissible languages; time limit for filing the translation of the application

1.2

Language of the proceedings

1.3

European divisional applications; Art. 61 applications

2.

Derogations from the language of the proceedings in written proceedings

2a.

Documents to be used as evidence

3.

Documents filed in the wrong language

3.1

Documents making up a European patent application

3.2

Other documents

4.

Translation of the priority document

5.

Authentic text

5.1

General remark

5.2

Conformity of translation with the original text

6.

Certificate of translation

7.

Derogations from the language of the proceedings in oral proceedings

CHAPTER IX

COMMON PROVISIONS

1.

Representation

1.1

Representation by a professional representative

1.2

Representation by an employee

1.3

Common representative

1.4

List of professional representatives; legal practitioners

1.5

Signed authorisation

1.6

General authorisation

1.7

Invitation to file authorisation

2.

Form of documents

2.1

Documents making up the European patent application

2.2

Replacement documents and translations

2.3

Other documents

2.4

Number of copies

2.5

Filing of subsequent documents

3.

Signature of documents

3.1

Documents filed after filing the European patent application

3.2

Documents forming part of the European patent application

3.3

Form of signature

3.4

Joint applicants

CHAPTER X

DRAWINGS

1.

Graphic forms of presentation considered as drawings

1.1

Technical drawings

1.2

Photographs

2.

Representation of drawings

2.1

Grouping of drawings

2.2

Reproducibility of drawings

2.3

Figure accompanying the abstract

3.

Conditions regarding the paper used

4.

Presentation of the sheets of drawings

4.1

Usable surface area of sheets

4.2

Numbering of sheets of drawings

5.

General layout of drawings

5.1

Page-setting

5.2

Numbering of figures

5.3

Whole figure

6.

Prohibited matter

7.

Executing of drawings

7.1

Drawings of lines and strokes

7.2

Shading

7.3

Cross-sections

7.3.1

Sectional diagrams

7.3.2

Hatching

7.4

Scale of drawings

7.5

Numbers, letters and reference signs

7.5.1

Leading lines

7.5.2

Arrows

7.5.3

Height of the numbers and letters in the drawings

7.5.4

Consistent use of reference signs as between description, claims and drawings

7.5.5

Consistent use of reference signs as between drawings

7.6

Variations in proportions

8.

Text matter on drawings

9.

Conventional symbols

10.

Amendments to drawings

11.

Graphic forms of presentation not considered as drawings

11.1

Chemical and mathematical formulae

11.2

Tables

11.2.1

Tables in the description

11.2.2

Tables in the claims

CHAPTER XI

FEES

1.

General

2.

Methods of payment

2a.

Currencies

3.

Date considered as date on which payment is made

3.1

Payment or transfer to a bank or giro account held by the European Patent Organisation

3.2

Delivery or remittance of a cheque made payable to the EPO

3.3

Deposit accounts with the EPO

3.3.1

General remarks

3.3.2

Inpayments to replenish a deposit account

3.3.3

Debiting the deposit account

3.3.4

Date of receipt of the debit order; insufficient funds

3.4

Automatic debiting procedure

4.

Due date for fees

4.1

General

4.1.1

Due date

4.1.2

Amount of the fee

4.2

Due date for specific fees

4.2.1

Filing fee, search fee, designation fee, claims fees

4.2.2

Examination fee

4.2.3

Fees for grant and printing

4.2.4

Renewal fees

5.

(deleted)

6.

Payment in due time

6.1

Basic principle

6.2

Ten-day fail-safe arrangement

6.2.1

Requirements

6.2.2

Application of the ten-day fail-safe arrangement to replenishment of deposit account

6.2.3

Debit orders

6.2.4

Payment of fee at the normal fee rate

6.2.5

Amount of fee payable

6.2.6

Noting of loss of rights

7.

Purpose of payment

7.1

General

7.1.1

Condition for valid payment

7.1.2

Purpose of payment

7.2

Indication of the purpose of the payment in the case of designation fees

7.3

Indication of the purpose of payment in the case of claims fees

7.3.1

Claims fees payable on filing the European patent application

7.3.2

Claims fees payable before the grant of the European patent

8.

No deferred payment of fees, no legal aid, no discretion

9.

Reduction of fees

9.1

General

9.2

Reduction under the language arrangements

9.2.1

Conditions

9.2.2

Reduction of the filing fee

9.2.3

Reduction of the examination fee

9.2.4

Reduction of the opposition fee

9.2.5

Reduction of the appeal fee

9.3

Special reductions

9.3.1

Reduction of the search fee for a supplementary European search

9.3.2

Reduction of the examination fee where the international preliminary examination report is being drawn up by the EPO

9.3.3

Reduction of the fees for the international search and international preliminary examination of an international application

10.

Refund of fees

10.1

General remarks

10.1.1

Fee payments lacking a legal basis

10.1.2

Fee payments which are not valid

10.1.3

Insignificant amounts

10.2

Special refunds

10.2.1

Refund of the search fee

10.2.2

Refund of the further search fee

10.2.3

Refund of the international search fee

10.2.4

Refund of the examination fee

10.2.5

Refund of the international preliminary examination fee

10.2.6

Refund pursuant to Art. 77(5)

10.2.7

Refund of claims fees and of the fees for grant and printing

10.3

Method of refund

10.4

Person to whom refund is payable

10.5

Re-allocation instead of refund

CHAPTER XII

INSPECTION OF FILES; COMMUNICATION OF INFORMATION CONTAINED IN FILES; CONSULTATION OF THE REGISTER OF EUROPEAN PATENTS; ISSUANCE OF CERTIFIED COPIES

1.

General

2.

Inspection of files

2.1

Extent of file inspection

2.2

Procedure for file inspection

2.3

Restrictions to file inspection

2.4

Confidentiality of the request

2.5

File inspection before publication of the application

2.6

Publication of bibliographic data before publication of the application

3.

Communication of information from the files

4.

Consultation of the Register of European Patents

5.

Certified copies

6.

Priority documents issued by the EPO