7.3.2 Decisions considering the application of the EPC 2000

Under Art. 79(1) EPC all the contracting states which are party to the EPC at the time of filing of the patent application are now deemed to be designated in the request for grant of a European patent. Applicants continue to have the option of withdrawing designations pursuant to Art. 79(3) EPC (see in this chapter IV.A.7.1.).

J 9/14 confirmed the established jurisprudence of the Legal Board on the correction of errors according to which the withdrawal of the designation of a contracting state could not be retracted once it had been published in the European Patent Bulletin. The board referred to J 1/11 where it had been held that with regard to the progress of technology and the implementation of internet technology by the EPO a distinction between public file inspection and publication in the European Patent Bulletin was no longer relevant.

The Legal Board in J 9/14 re-emphasised that the public had a legitimate interest in relying on the information published by the EPO. The official notification to the public of the withdrawal is a key step and legal certainty would suffer unacceptably if thereafter, even for only a short period, a correction of the withdrawal were allowable (see also J 25/03, J 37/03, J 7/06).