6. Claim to priority (see also F‑VI)
6.2 Applications giving rise to a right of priority
Applications giving rise to a right of priority referred to in A‑III, 6.1(i) are those filed at industrial property offices:
(c)not subject to either the Paris Convention or the Agreement establishing the WTO, but where:
(i)that authority recognises that a first filing made at the EPO gives rise to a right of priority under conditions and with effects equivalent to those laid down in the Paris Convention and
(ii)the EPO President issues a communication indicating this.
To date, no such communication referred to in (c)(ii) has been issued and so this does not as yet apply. Furthermore, the members of the WTO do not necessarily have to be states as such but may also be intergovernmental bodies or regions with special status such as the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu.
In view of the wording of Art. 87(1), which refers to filings "in or for" any state party to the Paris Convention or member of the WTO, priority may be claimed of an earlier first-filed national application, a previous European patent application, a previous application filed under another regional patent treaty or an international application filed under the PCT. This includes the US "provisional application for patent" (notice from the EPO President dated 26 January 1996, OJ EPO 1996, 81). A list of the countries party to the Paris Convention is available on WIPO's website and regularly published in the EPO Official Journal. Likewise, a list of the members of the WTO is regularly updated on the WTO website.
The possibility previously excluded by decisions G 2/02 and G 3/02 of claiming priority from an application filed at the industrial property authority of a WTO member not party to the Paris Convention (Art. 87(1) EPC 1973) no longer applies under the revised Art. 87(1).