2.5.1 Publication of the international application 

The international publication of a Euro-PCT application in an official language of the European Patent Office takes the place of publication of the European patent application and will be mentioned in the European Patent Bulletin. If the international publication of the Euro-PCT application is in another language, a translation into one of the official languages must be filed with the EPO within 31 months of the priority date (Art. 22(1) PCT and Rule 159(1)(a)), see E‑IX, 2.1.3. The EPO will publish the translation of the application submitted by the applicant upon entry into the European phase. In that case the provisional protection is, subject to Art. 67(2) and (3), only effective as from the date of publication of the translation by the EPO.

The translation of the international application is published together with the bibliographic data as an A document and includes all documents that were part of the international publication as originally published:

– the description as originally filed; 

– the claims as originally filed; 

– any claims amended under Art. 19 PCT, including any related statement of which a translation has been filed (see E‑IX, 2.1.3, items (viii) and (ix));

– any drawings as originally filed; 

– the sequence listing forming part of the description; 

– the abstract; 

– any appendices to the application; 

– any certificate(s) of the deposit of biological material; 

– the translation of the international search report (Rule 44bis.3 PCT).

The mandatory translation of the annexes to the IPER and any amendments to the application documents filed on or after entry into the European phase are not published.

If Rule 20.5bis(d) PCT applies (see C‑III, 1.3), the publication will comprise the translation of both the erroneously filed application documents and the correct application documents. The front page of the publication will make reference to the fact that the notification of incompatibility under Rule 20.5bis(d) PCT applies to the application if the application was filed between 1 July 2020 and 31 October 2022. The notification of incompatibility was withdrawn with effect from 1 November 2022 and is no longer indicated for applications filed on or after that date.

Pursuant to Art. 153(6), the international search report takes the place of the European search report. Once the supplementary European search report has been drawn up, this will be mentioned in the European Patent Bulletin. The supplementary search report itself is not published but is available via file inspection (see A‑XI, 2.2).

If the translation is not supplied, the application is to be deemed withdrawn (see E‑IX, 2.1.3). Furthermore, in this case, the application which has been published under the PCT is not considered as comprised in the state of the art in accordance with Art. 54(3) pursuant to Rule 165 (see G‑IV, 5.2).