Chapter II – Provisions governing the application
Rule 28a 47
New deposit of biological material
A revised version of the European Patent Convention entered into force on 13 December 2007. The provisions of the revised Convention apply unless the transitional provisions provide for the applicability of the EPC 1973. |
(1) If biological material deposited in accordance with Rule 28, paragraph 1, ceases to be available from the institution with which it was deposited because:
(a) the biological material is no longer viable, or
(b) for any other reason the depositary institution is unable to supply samples,
and if no sample of the biological material has been transferred to another depositary institution recognised for the purposes of Rule 28, from which it continues to be available, an interruption in availability shall be deemed not to have occurred if a new deposit of the biological material originally deposited is made within a period of three months from the date on which the depositor was notified of the interruption by the depositary institution and if a copy of the receipt of the deposit issued by the institution is forwarded to the European Patent Office within four months from the date of the new deposit stating the number of the application or of the European patent.
(2) In the case provided for in paragraph 1(a), the new deposit shall be made with the depositary institution with which the original deposit was made; in the cases provided for in paragraph 1(b), it may be made with another depositary institution recognised for the purposes of Rule 28.
(3) Where the institution with which the original deposit was made ceases to be recognised for the purposes of Rule 28, either entirely or for the kind of biological material to which the deposited sample belongs, or where that institution discontinues, temporarily or definitively, the performance of its functions as regards deposited biological material, and the notification referred to in paragraph 1 from the depositary institution is not received within six months from the date of such event, the three-month period referred to in paragraph 1 shall begin on the date on which this event is announced in the Official Journal of the European Patent Office.
(4) Any new deposit shall be accompanied by a statement signed by the depositor certifying that the newly deposited biological material is the same as that originally deposited.
(5) If the new deposit has been made under the provisions of the Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure of 28 April 1977, the provisions of that Treaty shall prevail.
47Inserted by decision of the Administrative Council of 30.11.1979 which entered into force on 01.06.1980 (OJ EPO 1979, 449); amended by decision of the Administrative Council of 14.06.1996 which entered into force on 01.10.1996 (OJ EPO 1996, 390).