|
D
/
E
How to get a European patent
A. General overview
B. The EPO as a PCT receiving Office
C. The EPO as an International Searching Authority
D. The EPO as an International Preliminary Examining Authority
E. Euro-PCT procedure before the EPO as a designated or elected Office
Annexes
 |
|
Lack of unity of invention
|
95
|
The EPO as ISA examines whether the application complies with the requirement of unity of invention. This means that the international application must either relate to only one invention or to a group of inventions which are so linked that they form a single general inventive concept.
| |
Art. 17(3)(a) PCT R. 13, 40 PCT
GL/ISPE, Ch. 10
Art. 154(3) EPC
R. 105(1) EPC
GL/EPO B-VII, 3; C-III, 7.11
OJ 1989, 61
|
|
96
|
If the EPO as ISA considers that the international application does not comply with the requirement as to unity of invention, the EPO - stating its reasons for so finding - invites the applicant to pay an additional search fee for each further invention. At the same time the EPO informs the applicant of the result of its partial international search, which is restricted to those parts of the application relating to the invention first mentioned in the claims.
|
If the applicant does not pay any additional search fee, the EPO establishes the ISR and WO-ISA on the basis of the result already communicated.
|
If the applicant pays one or more additional search fee(s) within the time limit set, those parts of the application for which additional search fees were paid will also be searched. Consequently the ISR will be established for all inventions for which a search fee has been paid. Additional search fees are payable directly to the EPO as ISA.
|
Art. 17(3) PCT
|
|
|
|
| |
