Guidelines for examination

As part of our legal framework, the Guidelines for Examination are constantly being improved and reviewed - together with the EPC, the Boards of Appeal case law and in discussions with our user associations. The EPO actively seeks feedback on the most recent edition of the Guidelines in a public user consultation each spring, but users are welcome to send suggestions for additions or improvements at any time of the year to patentlaw@epo.org (for the EPC Guidelines) or international_pct_affairs@epo.org (for the PCT-EPO Guidelines).

The SACEPO Working Party on Guidelines is the bi-annual consultative forum for the annual revisions of Guidelines for Examination in the EPO (EPC Guidelines) and of the Guidelines for Search and Examination at the EPO as PCT Authority (PCT-EPO Guidelines).