1.2 Role of the applicant in initiating review or correction

The EPO as designated/elected Office may only process the application once it has become competent (A‑XII, 4) and, as a rule, will only consider a correction at the applicant's request. It is therefore the applicant's responsibility to consider whether there is a need to remedy a loss of rights or to correct an error or omission that occurred in the international phase and what options are available for this under the provisions of the EPC.

Applicants are advised to consider this as soon as they become aware of any loss of rights, error and/or omission. In some cases, they may need to request early processing to be able to invoke a remedy under the EPC or the PCT, e.g. for any request under Rule 56 or 56a (A‑XII, 5.2). It is noted that, in general, the time limits set in provisions that provide for remedies are not deferred as a result of the processing ban, since such provisions provide only for certain rights and do not require the applicant to act (A‑XII, 3.1).

In other cases, the remedy must be requested within a short deadline set in the PCT, e.g. the one-month time limit for requesting restoration of priority under Rule 49ter PCT (A‑XV, 5) and the two-month time limit from the date a loss of rights was notified by the IB (Rule 51 PCT in combination with Art. 25(2) PCT) (A‑XV, 2).