5.3 Publication of the European patent application 

5.3.001The European patent application is published as soon as possible after the expiry of eighteen months from the date of filing or the earliest priority date. You may however request that it be published earlier. 

The publication contains the description, the claims and any drawings, all as filed, plus the abstract. If the European search report is available in time, it is annexed (A1 publication); if not, it is published separately (A3 publication). If the European patent application was not filed in English, French or German, its translation will be published. 

All European patent applications, European search reports and European patent specifications are published in electronic form only, on the EPO's publication server. The publication server is accessible via the EPO website (epo.org).

5.3.002If you amend the claims after receiving the European search report but before completion of the technical preparations for publication (see point 5.4.018), the amended claims will be published in addition to the claims as filed. The technical preparations are deemed to have been completed five weeks before expiry of the eighteenth month after the date of filing or, if priority is claimed, after the date of the earliest priority.

5.3.003The European patent application is not published if it has been finally refused or withdrawn or is deemed withdrawn before completion of the technical preparations for publication. 

5.3.004The EPO informs you of the date on which the European Patent Bulletin mentions the publication of the European search report, and it draws your attention to the period for filing the request for examination (paying the fee for examination), which begins on that date (see points 5.2.011 and 5.4.001). It also informs you that the designation fee must be paid within six months of the date on which the European Patent Bulletin mentions publication of the European search report and that the same period applies to the payment of any extension and validation fees.

5.3.005For the provisional protection that the application confers after publication see the fourth paragraph of point 2.2.001.

A contracting state not having the language of the proceedings as an official language may prescribe that provisional protection does not take effect until a translation of the claims into one of its official languages at your option or, where that state has prescribed the use of one specific official language, in that language: 

5.3.006Once the European patent application has been published, files relating to it are available for public inspection by way of the European Patent Register, which can be accessed via the EPO website (epo.org).

From that time, too, the public has access to the application's bibliographic data and to information about the state of the proceedings by means of the European Patent Register, which can be accessed via the EPO website (see Annex VI).

Additional information about the form in which European patent applications and patents are published and about periodical EPO publications is given in Annex VI.