Drafting the technical application documents
The formal requirements for these documents are defined in Rules 32 to 35; those for documents filed subsequently are in Rule 36.
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71
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The following are the chief provisions governing the form of application documents and documents filed subsequently:
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R. 35
R. 36
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(a)
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The documents making up the European patent application (description, claims, drawings and abstract) must be filed in a single copy. The same applies to documents replacing these original documents.
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(b)
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The documents must be on strong, white A 4 paper (portrait format).
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(c)
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Each document making up the application (request, description, claims, drawings and abstract) must begin on a new sheet.
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(d)
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All the sheets must be numbered in consecutive Arabic numerals, which must be positioned top centre but not in the top margin.
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(e)
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The following minimum margins (type area) must be left blank:
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top: 2 cm
left: 2.5 cm
right: 2 cm
bottom: 2 cm
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(f)
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The lines of each sheet of the description and the claims should be numbered in sets of five, the numbers appearing on the left side, to the right of the margin.
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(g)
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The line spacing must be 1.5.
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(h)
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There must be no handwritten additions to the text.
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The special requirements to be met by drawings are dealt with in the Guidelines, Part A, Chapter X.
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Annex III gives three examples of how to draft a European patent application.
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C. Preparing and filing a European patent application
Unity of invention
Description
