In the Guidelines, the following abbreviations are used:

EPC European Patent Convention EPO European Patent Office OJ Official Journal of the European Patent Office Art. Article RFees Rules relating to Fees WIPO World Intellectual Property Organization PCT Patent Cooperation Treaty ISA International Searching Authority IPEA International Preliminary Examining Authority ADA Arrangements for deposit accounts AAD Arrangements for the automatic debiting procedure BNS back-file conversion numerical system rec. recital Prot. Art. 69 Protocol on the Interpretation of Art. 69 EPC Prot. Centr. Protocol on the Centralisation of the European patent system and on its introduction (Protocol on Centralisation) ISO International search opinion EVL Electronic virtual libary

The reference to Articles and Rules - and their paragraphs - of the EPC will be as follows: "Article 123, paragraph 2" will be: "Art. 123(2)", "Rule 29, paragraph 7" will be: "Rule 29(7)". Articles and Rules of the PCT and Articles of the Rules relating to Fees are referred to in a similar way, e.g. "Art. 33(1) PCT" and "Art. 10(1) RFees" respectively. Only where deemed appropriate, i.e. in order to avoid confusion, will references to Articles and Rules of the EPC be provided with the extension "EPC".

Decisions and opinions of the Enlarged Board of Appeal will only be referred to with their capital letter, their number and the number and page of the Official Journal they were published in, e.g. "G 2/88, OJ 4/1990, 93". Decisions of the Technical Boards of Appeal and the Legal Board of Appeal will be referred to in the same way, e.g., "T 152/82, OJ 7/1984, 301" and "J 4/91, OJ 8/1992, 402", where they have been published in the OJ, and "T 169/88, not published in OJ", if not. It is noted that all decisions and opinions of the Enlarged Board of Appeal and all decisions of the boards of appeal of the EPO are published on the Internet (http://www.european-patent-office.org/) (see the Notice from the Vice-President Directorate-General 3 dated 3 July 2002, OJ 8-9/2002, 442).

The arrangements for deposit accounts and their annexes, including the arrangements for the automatic debiting procedure plus explanatory notes, were last published as a Supplement to OJ 2/2002.