EUROPEAN PATENT CONVENTION - Table of Contents Convention on the Grant of European Patents (European Patent Convention) PART X - INTERNATIONAL APPLICATIONS UNDER THE PATENT COOPERATION TREATY EURO-PCT APPLICATIONS Article 153 - The European Patent Office as designated Office or elected Office

Article 153 The European Patent Office as designated Office or elected Office

Art. 35, 92, 93, 129 R. 65, 68, 113, 159-165

(1) The European Patent Office shall be

(a) a designated Office for any State party to this Convention in respect of which the PCT is in force, which is designated in the international application and for which the applicant wishes to obtain a European patent, and

(b) an elected Office, if the applicant has elected a State designated pursuant to letter (a).

(2) An international application for which the European Patent Office is a designated or elected Office, and which has been accorded an international date of filing, shall be equivalent to a regular European application (Euro-PCT application).

(3) The international publication of a Euro-PCT application in an official language of the European Patent Office shall take the place of the publication of the European patent application and shall be mentioned in the European Patent Bulletin.

(4) If the Euro-PCT application is published in another language, a translation into one of the official languages shall be filed with the European Patent Office, which shall publish it. Subject to Article 67, paragraph 3, the provisional protection under Article 67, paragraphs 1 and 2, shall be effective from the date of that publication.

(5) The Euro-PCT application shall be treated as a European patent application and shall be considered as comprised in the state of the art under Article 54, paragraph 3, if the conditions laid down in paragraph 3 or 4 and in the Implementing Regulations are fulfilled.

(6) The international search report drawn up in respect of a Euro-PCT application or the declaration replacing it, and their international publication, shall take the place of the European search report and the mention of its publication in the European Patent Bulletin.

(7)158 A supplementary European search report shall be drawn up in respect of any Euro-PCT application under paragraph 5. The Administrative Council may decide that the supplementary search report is to be dispensed with or that the search fee is to be reduced.

158 See the decision of the Administrative Council of 21.12.1978 (OJ EPO 1979, 4, Corr. 50), 17.05.1979 (OJ EPO 1979, 248) and 09.06.1995 (OJ EPO 1995, 511) dispensing with the supplementary European search report. These decisions continue to apply to applications filed before 01.07.2005, but for those filed on or after that date they have been rescinded by Council decision of 10.06.2005 (OJ EPO 2005, 422) as amended on 27.10.2005 (OJ EPO 2005, 546), except that the rescinding of the decision of 21.12.1978 (OJ EPO 1979, 4, Corr. 50) does not extend to international applications on which the European Patent Office draws up the international search report.
See the decision of the Administrative Council of 10.06.2005 reducing the fee for the supplementary European search (OJ EPO 2005, 422) as amended on 27.10.2005 (OJ EPO 2005, 546) and 15.12.2005 (OJ EPO 2006, 13 f). See also the Council's decision of 14.09.1979 (OJ EPO 1979, 368), 11.12.1980 (OJ EPO 1981, 5), 09.12.1993 (OJ EPO 1994, 6) and 08.06.2000 (OJ EPO 2000, 321) reducing the fee for the supplementary European search. These decisions continue to apply to applications filed before 01.07.2005; for those filed on or after that date, the decision of 27.10.2005 (OJ EPO 2005, 548) applies.