Guidelines for Examination - Table of Contents   GENERAL PART   2. Explanatory notes   2.2 Abbreviations

In the Guidelines, the following abbreviations are used:

EPC European Patent Convention EPO European Patent Office OJ Official Journal of the European Patent Office Art. Article RFees Rules relating to Fees WIPO World Intellectual Property Organization PCT Patent Cooperation Treaty ISA International Searching Authority WO-ISA Written Opinion of the International Search Authority IPEA International Preliminary Examining Authority IPRP International Preliminary Report on Patentability IPER International Preliminary Examination Report EESR Extended European Search Report ADA Arrangements for deposit accounts AAD Arrangements for the automatic debiting procedure BNS back-file conversion numerical system rec. recital Prot. Art. 69 Protocol on the Interpretation of Art. 69 EPC Prot. Centr. Protocol on the Centralisation of the European patent system and on its introduction (Protocol on Centralisation)     EVL Electronic virtual library

References to the European Patent Convention (EPC) are references to the European Patent Convention as amended by the Act revising the EPC of 29 November 2000 and the decision of the Administrative Council of 28 June adopting the new text of the European Patent Convention (OJ EPO Special editions No. 4/2001, pages 56 et seq; No. 1/2003, pages 3 et seq; No. 1/2007, pages 1 to 88) and the Implementing Regulations as adopted by decision of the Administrative Council of 7 December 2006 (OJ Special edition No. 1/2007, pages 89 et seq).

Where necessary, reference is made to the European Patent Convention of 5 October 1973 as amended by the act revising Article 63 EPC of 17 December 1991 and by the decisions of the Administrative Council of 21 December 1978, 13 December 1994, 20 October 1995, 5 December 1996, 10 December 1998 and 27 October 2005.

The reference to Articles and Rules - and their paragraphs - of EPC 2000 will be as follows: "Article 123, paragraph 2" will be: "Art. 123(2)", "Rule 29, paragraph 7" will be: "Rule 29(7)". Articles and Rules of EPC 1973, of the PCT and Articles of the Rules relating to Fees are referred to in a similar way, e.g. "Art. 54(4) EPC 1973", "Art. 33(1) PCT" and "Art. 10(1) RFees" respectively. Only where deemed appropriate, i.e. in order to avoid confusion, will references to Articles and Rules of the EPC be provided with the extension "EPC 2000".

Decisions and opinions of the Enlarged Board of Appeal will only be referred to with their capital letter, their number and the number and page of the Official Journal they were published in, e.g. "G 2/88, OJ 4/1990, 93". Decisions of the Technical Boards of Appeal and the Legal Board of Appeal will be referred to in the same way, e.g., "T 152/82, OJ 7/1984, 301" and "J 4/91, OJ 8/1992, 402", where they have been published in the OJ, and "T 169/88, not published in OJ", if not. It is noted that all decisions and opinions of the Enlarged Board of Appeal and all decisions of the boards of appeal of the EPO are published on the Internet (http://www.epo.org) (see the Notice from the Vice-President Directorate-General 3 dated 3 July 2002, OJ 8-9/2002, 442).

The arrangements for deposit accounts and their annexes, including the arrangements for the automatic debiting procedure plus explanatory notes, were last published as a Supplement to OJ 10/2007.