The EPC imposes time limits upon parties to proceedings.

Some of these are fixed by the articles of the EPC, e.g. Art. 78(2) (payment of filing and search fees), Art. 91(5) (designation of the inventor), Art. 94(2) (request for examination) and Art. 99(1) (opposition). Others are fixed in the Implementing Regulations, e.g. in Rule 36(5) (document reproducing contents of facsimile) and Rule 69(2) (applying for a decision after notification of loss of rights).

Others take the form of a stipulated range, e.g. 2 to 6 weeks as in Rule 46(1) (payment of further search fees), the precise period within this range being at the EPO 's discretion.

In other cases, e.g. those dealt with in Rule 41(1) (rectification of deficiencies in the form of the application documents) and Art. 96(1) (invitation to the applicant to indicate whether he desires to proceed further with the European patent application), a period, but not its duration, is provided for in the EPC. The duration must be determined by the EPO in accordance with Rule 84 (see VIII, 1.2).