EUROPEAN PATENT CONVENTION 1973 - Table of Contents CONVENTION PART X - INTERNATIONAL APPLICATION PURSUANT TO THE PATENT COOPERATION TREATY Article 158 - Publication of the international application and its supply to the European Patent...

Article 158 Publication of the international application and its supply to the European Patent Office

Art. 93, 129 R. 85a, 106, 107

(1) Publication under Article 21 of the Cooperation Treaty of an international application for which the European Patent Office is a designated Office shall, subject to paragraph 3, take the place of the publication of a European patent application and shall be mentioned in the European Patent Bulletin. Such an application shall not however be considered as comprised in the state of the art in accordance with Article 54, paragraph 3, if the conditions laid down in paragraph 2 are not fulfilled.

(2)112 The international application shall be supplied to the European Patent Office in one of its official languages. The applicant shall pay to the European Patent Office the national fee provided for in Article 22, paragraph 1, or Article 39, paragraph 1, of the Cooperation Treaty.

(3) If the international application is published in a language other than one of the official languages of the European Patent Office, that Office shall publish the international application, supplied as specified in paragraph 2. Subject to the provisions of Article 67, paragraph 3, the provisional protection in accordance with Article 67, paragraphs 1 and 2, shall be effective from the date of that publication.

112 See decisions of the Enlarged Board of Appeal G 3/91, G 5/93 (Annex I).