2.1. Application filed in or for a state which is party to the Paris Convention or a member of the WTO

Under the EPC 2000 Art. 87(1) EPC was amended to align it with Art. 2 TRIPS, which requires that priority rights also be extended to first filings made in or for any member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) (OJ SE 4/2007, 88). The revised provision governs applications filed on or after 13 December 2007.

Previously, in G 2/02 and G 3/02 (OJ 2004, 483) the Enlarged Board decided that the obligations deriving from the TRIPS Agreement did not bind the EPO directly and did not therefore entitle the applicant for a European patent to claim priority from a first filing in a state which at the relevant dates was not a member of the Paris Convention but was a member of the WTO/TRIPS Agreement.