INFORMATION FROM THE EPO
Free subscription to the on-line services of the European Patent Office
The European Patent Register on-line contains bibliographic data and legal status data on published European and Euro-PCT patent applications. The file currently contains 600 000 records and is updated daily. Each year, 60 000 records are added.
The EPO can be accessed via the national data network or by dialling direct through the public telephone system. Accessing times have been extended and the transmission speed increased.
The information on offer has been considerably expanded and the EPIDOS information register now tells you even more about the legal status of European and international patent applications.
In addition to the entries contained in the European Patent Register (Rule 92 EPC) the following data are available in the EPIDOS information register:
1. Bibliographic data relating to all published PCT applications designating EPC contracting states and not yet in the national phase;
2. Filing date of demand for international preliminary examination (PCT);
3. Date of despatch of communications of the examining division under Article 96 and Rule 51(2) EPC, with time limits and dates of applicant's responses;
4. Date of despatch of communications of the examining division under Rule 51(4) and (6) EPC;
5. Date of despatch of decisions of the Receiving Section under Article 91(3) EPC and of the examining division under Article 97(1) EPC, with date of final legal effect;
6. Date on which the European application is deemed to be withdrawn (including date of despatch of the communication) and date of receipt of last request for further processing or re-establishment of rights;
7. Expected date of grant of the European patent (available approximately six weeks before publication in the European Patent Bulletin);
8. Date of despatch of communications of the opposition division under Article 101(2) and Rule 58(1) EPC, with time limits and dates of responses;
9. Date of despatch of decisions of the opposition division under Article 106(3), with date of final legal effect (where applicable);
10. Date of despatch of decisions of the opposition division under Article 102(3) EPC, with date of final legal effect;
11. Date of despatch of communications of the opposition division under Rule 58(5) EPC;
12. Date of despatch of the decision of the opposition division to revoke the European patent or to reject the opposition, with date of final legal effect;
13. Date of despatch of the notification of termination of opposition proceedings after lapse of the patent in all designated states (Rule 60 EPC), with date on which loss of rights ensued;
14. Date of filing of an appeal, information about interlocutory revision under Article 109(1) EPC, date of receipt of the appeal by the board of appeal and date of oral proceedings;
15. Date of payment of renewal fees, with indication of year;
16. Location of the paper file, with fax extension for requests for file inspection;
17. Language of proceedings;
18. Date of legal effect of registered licences and other rights;
19. Date of transfer of rights, names of former and present applicant(s)/proprietor(s);
20. Extension of European patent applications and patents (currently Slovenia and Lithuania);
21. Current EPO procedural fees schedule in the currencies of the Contracting States and advance notification of any fee changes;
22. Miscellaneous messages of interest to all users of the European patent system.
Expansion of EPIDOS information register
Three extra items have now been added:
(a) Entry of Euro-PCT applications into regional phase
The EPIDOS information register contains indications relating to the entry of Euro-PCT applications into the regional phase.
Under a new heading: "Action under rule 104b EPC: ddmmyy", the EPIDOS information register gives the date on which a Euro-PCT application fulfils at least one of the requirements of Rule 104b(1) EPC.
(b) Noting of loss of particular rights, requests for decisions
The EPIDOS information register indicates:
- the reason for the loss of particular rights;
- the date of despatch of the EPO communication noting it;
- the date on which it took legal effect;
- the date of receipt of a request for a decision under Rule 69(2) EPC.
(c) Cited documents
At the moment, only current citations are given.
It is expected that shortly however the EPIDOS information register will indicate all documents cited. This will be announced in the EPO Official Journal in due course.
If the application or publication number is not known, a search tool in the form of a CD-ROM is also available. The CD-ROM is called ESPACE-ACCESS. It contains all published European and PCT patent applications since 1978, is updated monthly and offers the following additional search criteria: priority number and date, designated states, IPC symbols, inventor, applicant, title and abstracts.
One year subscripton to ESPACE-ACCESS (12 updates) costs DEM 950.
The services of the Register of European Patents on-line cost DEM 2.50 per transaction (no further charge, no subscription fee). The Register of Patents on-line can be tried out for one month completely free of charge. Send your request for a free password and further information to:
European Patent Office
Elena Sereix
EPIDOS Data Bases
Schottenfeldgasse 29
A-1072 Vienna
Phone: (+43-1) 52126 307
Fax: (+43-1) 52126 3292