Article 9

EUROPEAN PATENT OFFICE

Information from the EPO

Notice from the European Patent Office dated 7 December 2023 concerning the updating of the Guidelines for Examination in the European Patent Office

By decision of the President of the EPO dated 7 December 2023 and pursuant to Article 10(2) EPC, the Guidelines for Examination in the European Patent Office (EPC Guidelines) have been amended in line with the EPO's policy to provide an annual update. The amended EPC Guidelines, which will enter into force on 1 March 2024, will be published as a complete March 2024 edition that will supersede the March 2023 edition.

The March 2024 edition of the EPC Guidelines will be published only in electronic form and will be available in all three official languages on the EPO website at epo.org.

The EPC Guidelines will be available in PDF format – as a clean copy and a version showing all modifications – and in HTML format. Within each section of the HTML version, the latest amendments can be viewed by selecting the Show modifications box in the top right-hand corner. A full list of the sections which have been amended, together with corresponding hyperlinks, will also be available.

As a courtesy service, a preview of the English version will be made available on the EPO website at the beginning of February for advance information.

Amendments have been made to all parts of the EPC Guidelines. Some of them have been made in the light of decisions of the EPO boards of appeal while others are based on decisions of the President and legal or procedural changes; some updates have been made in response to user requests for further clarification of the EPO's practice. In addition, as part of an initiative to harmonise and modernise the language used in the Guidelines over the coming three years, Parts A, B and C have been rewritten in a simple, clear and consistent style using plain language. Furthermore, gender-neutral language has been implemented in all official languages across all parts of the Guidelines.

Clarifications and updates regarding the EPO's practice have been added throughout the Guidelines. In particular, Part A now reflects all the developments and improvements made to the online filing tools and to MyEPO Portfolio, including the introduction of the Contingency Upload Service. In the same vein, Part C provides explanations of MyEPO Portfolio's shared area. Part E-II, 2 contains detailed information governing the notification fiction in force since 1 November 2023 and its impact on the computation of time limits. Part F-III now includes a section with details of disclosure aspects for subject-matter related to artificial intelligence. The impact of G 2/211 is implemented in the assessment of inventive step in Part G and in the free evaluation of evidence in Part E. The transfer of priority right as prescribed in G 2/222 ("Entitlement to priority") is reflected in Parts A and D.

Once the preview version of the 2024 edition is published in February 2024, an online user consultation on the newly published Guidelines will be launched. Detailed information about the online user consultation, which will run until April 2024, will be published on the EPO website at the beginning of February 2024.