INFORMATION FROM THE EPO
Notes on the preparation of OCR-readable patent applications
I. Introduction
At the request of applicants and their representatives, the Office has revised the instruction sheet (published in the Supplement to Official Journal 5/1986) for the preparation of OCR-readable patent applications (OCR = Optical Character Recognition). The new guidelines have been simplified and brought into line with the state of the art in the printing industry.
The following notes are intended to help applicants in preparing patent applications and to ease the task of the EPO in capturing the full text and converting it into digital format.
The guidelines do not affect the general provisions governing the presentation of application documents (Rule 35 EPC).
II. Notes
1. Print quality
Good print quality is crucial to OCR readability. It is therefore essential that one of the three copies of the application documents filed is the original or, if this is not possible, a flawless first-generation copy. Please use a suitable envelope to prevent bending or folding.
2. Paper
(a) Paper should preferably be white and woodfree (80 -120 g/m²).
(b) Format: DIN A4 (29.7 x 21 cm).
(c) Ensure that the paper is not damaged in any way; do not bend or fold the pages.
3. Typing instructions
(a) In principle, the scanner can read typefaces of any kind. You may therefore use any commonly available typewriter or printer. The only typefaces which may not be used are those which give the text a handwritten appearance, i.e. where the characters run into one another, and those which do not leave a clear space between characters and accents (e.g. ä, é).
As far as possible, the same typeface should be used throughout the application. The use of different typefaces on the same page is to be avoided at all costs.
(b) The characters must be uniformly black, with well-defined contours (do not use damaged or dirty type). Any commonly available black ribbon may be used.
N.B. Particular attention should be paid to print quality when using dot-matrix or inkjet printers.
(c) Pitch: preferably 10 or 12 cpi (ensuring that the characters are clearly separated).
Line spacing: 1 1/2.
(d) Minimum margins (type area):
Top: 2 cm (top edge of paper to page number)
Left: 2.5 cm (if desired, line numbering can be shown here outside the type area).
Right: 2 cm
Bottom: 2 cm
(If desired, the applicant's or representative's internal reference may be included in the top right-hand margin, outside the type area.)
(e) The minimum character height is 10 p; upper-case characters must be at least 2.1 mm high.
(f) Handwritten emendations are not permitted (apart from in special cases covered by paragraph (k) below).
If you have to change anything in the text, make a new printout of each corrected page. Do not use correcting fluid or similar materials.
(g) Try as far as possible to avoid word-breaks at the end of a line. If you have to divide a word, use the normal single hyphen (-), not the "equals" (=) sign.
(h) Tables and chemical or mathematical formulae or other graphics which are to be included in the printed application must be integrated into the main body of the text; entering them on separate sheets at the end of the description is not permissible.
(i) Do not replace letters with numbers or vice versa (for example, by using the zero sign "0" instead of the capital letter "O" or replacing the figure "1" with the letter "I"). Symbols such as "/", "|", or "\" must be clearly distinguishable. This also applies to the various types of brackets, viz. ")", "]" and "}".
(j) Always start the claims, description and abstract on a new page. The first page of each part must begin with the appropriate heading, i.e. "Claim(s)", "Description" or "Abstract".
(k) Where Greek, mathematical and other characters cannot be generated by conventional typewriters or word-processors, it is recommended that the appropriate substitutes (see Annex) be used. As a last resort, characters may be inserted by hand. The use is permitted of the additional characters available in standard PC character sets.
(l) As far as possible, avoid underlining or footnotes.
