G 0002/92 (Non-payment of further search fees) of 06.07.1993
- European Case Law Identifier
- ECLI:EP:BA:1993:G000292.19930706
- Date of decision
- 6 July 1993
- Case number
- G 0002/92
- Petition for review of
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- Application number
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- IPC class
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- Language of proceedings
- German
- Distribution
- Published in the EPO's Official Journal (A)
- Download
- Decision in German
- Other decisions for this case
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- Abstracts for this decision
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- Application title
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- Applicant name
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- Opponent name
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- Board
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- Headnote
An applicant who fails to pay the further search fees for a non-unitary application when requested to do so by the Search Division under Rule 46(1) EPC cannot pursue that application for the subject-matter in respect of which no search fees have been paid. Such an applicant must file a divisional application in respect of such subject-matter if he wishes to seek protection for it.
- Relevant legal provisions
- European Patent Convention Art 82 1973European Patent Convention R 46 1973
- Keywords
- Lack of unity of invention
Consequence of non-payment of further search fees - Catchword
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- Cited cases
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- Citing cases
- G 0003/19R 0003/25J 0003/09T 0441/92T 0579/93T 0955/93T 0355/94T 0896/94T 0319/96T 0579/97T 0631/97T 0905/97T 0906/97T 0456/98T 0613/99T 0196/00T 0408/00T 0708/00T 1038/00T 0478/03T 0915/03T 0347/04T 1018/04T 1341/04T 0747/06T 0867/06T 0883/07T 0233/08T 1818/08T 2289/09T 1024/10T 1276/10T 0442/11T 0507/11T 0509/11T 1285/11T 1794/11T 1816/11T 0158/12T 1981/12T 1995/12T 2459/12T 1225/13T 0129/14T 0736/14T 0998/14T 2518/17T 2703/18T 0530/20T 1855/22T 2046/23
For the above reasons, the opinion of the Enlarged Board of Appeal is that the referred question should be answered as follows:
An applicant who fails to pay the further search fees for a non-unitary application when requested to do so by the Search Division under Rule 46(1) EPC cannot pursue that application for the subject-matter in respect of which no search fees have been paid. Such an applicant must file a divisional application in respect of such subject-matter if he wishes to seek protection for it.