2.2 Abbreviations 

In the Guidelines, the following abbreviations are used:

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 2001 adopting the new text of the European Patent Convention (OJ EPO Special editions No. 4/2001, pages 56 et seq; OJ EPO Special editions No. 1/2003, pages 3 et seq; OJ EPO Special editions No. 1/2007, pages 1 to 88) and the Implementing Regulations as adopted by decision of the Administrative Council of 7 December 2006 (OJ EPO Special edition No. 1/2007, pages 89 et seq) and as subsequently amended by decisions of the Administrative Council of 6 March 2008 (OJ EPO 2008, 124), 21 October 2008 (OJ EPO 2008, 513), 25 March 2009 (OJ EPO 2009, 296, and OJ EPO 2009, 299), 27 October 2009 (OJ EPO 2009, 582), 28 October 2009 (OJ EPO 2009, 585), 26 October 2010 (OJ EPO 2010, 568, OJ EPO 2010, 634, and OJ EPO 2010, 637), 27 June 2012 (OJ EPO 2012, 442), 16 October 2013 (OJ EPO 2013, 501, and OJ EPO 2013, 503), 13 December 2013 (OJ EPO 2014, A3, and OJ EPO 2014, A4), 15 October 2014 (OJ EPO 2015, A17), 14 October 2015 (OJ EPO 2015, A82, and OJ EPO 2015, A83), 30 June 2016 (OJ EPO 2016, A100), 14 December 2016 (OJ EPO 2016, A102), 28 June 2017 (OJ EPO 2017, A55), 29 June 2017 (OJ EPO 2017, A56), 13 December 2017 (OJ EPO 2018, A2), 28 June 2018 (OJ EPO 2018, A57), 28 March 2019 (OJ EPO 2019, A31), 12 December 2019 (OJ EPO 2020, A5), 27 March 2020 (OJ EPO 2020, A36), 15 December 2020 (OJ EPO 2020, A132, and OJ EPO 2021, A3), 14 December 2021 (OJ EPO 2022, A3), and 13 October 2022 (OJ EPO 2022, A101) and 14 December 2023 (OJ EPO 2024, A3, and OJ EPO 2024, A16).

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(7), 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 and their number, e.g. "G 2/88". 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", "J 4/91" and "T 169/88". It is noted that all 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 (epo.org).

The arrangements for deposit accounts and their annexes, including the arrangements for the automatic debiting procedure plus explanatory notes, are published from time to time as Supplements to the Official Journal of the EPO, which are available on the EPO website (epo.org).