5. First application in respect of the invention

In principle, only the first application filed in a state party to the Paris Convention or a member of the WTO can form the basis of a priority right. In the EPC this is made clear in Art. 87(1) and (4) EPC.

Therefore, if apart from the application whose priority is being claimed in the subsequent European application, an earlier previous application was also filed, in order to check the validity of the priority claim it must be established whether the invention claimed in the subsequent application was already disclosed in the earlier previous application – see in this chapter II.D.5.1. Decisions also focusing on the identity of the applicants are dealt with in this chapter II.D.5.2. Decisions concerning withdrawal of a previous first application are covered in this chapter II.D.5.3.