EUROPEAN PATENT CONVENTION 1973 - Table of Contents IMPLEMENTING REGULATIONS TO THE CONVENTION ON THE GRANT OF EUROPEAN PATENTS PART III - IMPLEMENTING REGULATIONS TO PART III OF THE CONVENTION Chapter II - Provisions governing the application Rule 30 - Unity of invention

Rule 30 50 Unity of invention

Art. 78

(1) Where a group of inventions is claimed in one and the same European patent application, the requirement of unity of invention referred to in Article 82 shall be fulfilled only when there is a technical relationship among those inventions involving one or more of the same or corresponding special technical features. The expression "special technical features" shall mean those features which define a contribution which each of the claimed inventions considered as a whole makes over the prior art.

(2) The determination whether a group of inventions is so linked as to form a single general inventive concept shall be made without regard to whether the inventions are claimed in separate claims or as alternatives within a single claim.

50 Amended by decision of the Administrative Council of 07.12.1990 which entered into force on 01.06.1991; applicable to those patent applications which have been filed on or after 01.06.1991 (OJ EPO 1991, 4 ff).