Guidelines

The official collection of all important information about the EPC Guidelines, the PCT-EPO Guidelines and their revision cycle, including the results of the online user consultation and the two annual meetings of the SACEPO Working Party on Guidelines.

Guidelines for Examination in the EPO

Practice and procedures from the filing of a European patent application to grant and in post-grant opposition, limitation and revocation

Read more

Guidelines for Search and Examination at the EPO as PCT Authority

Practice and procedures before the EPO as receiving Office, International Searching Authority and International Preliminary Examining Authority

Read more

Revision cycle

The Guidelines are revised annually, starting with a user consultation in February each year. You can view a summary of user responses to the annual public user consultation in our "Feedback" section below.

Read more

SACEPO Working Party on Guidelines

The SACEPO Working Party on Guidelines meets twice a year to agree on suggested updates and clarifications

Consultation results

Feedback

Users can send comments on the EPC and PCT-EPO Guidelines to Guidelines@epo.org at any time of the year. They also have an opportunity to provide their feedback in a public user consultation on the Guidelines, starting in February of each year.

Summary of user responses

Archive

Previous editions of the EPC Guidelines and the PCT-EPO Guidelines

Read more