2.1 Non-designation for reasons of national law

For reasons of national law, checkboxes in Box No. V of the PCT request form provide for exceptions to the otherwise automatic designation of Germany (DE), Japan (JP) and the Republic of Korea (KR). Selecting the checkbox for these designations is not considered to be withdrawal of a designation, but rather to be non-designation of the state(s) concerned.

According to national law in each of these states, the filing of an international application which contains the designation of that state and claims the priority of an earlier national application filed in that state will have the result that the earlier national application ceases to have effect, with the same consequences as the withdrawal of the earlier national application. To avoid this effect, the appropriate box must be selected (Box No. V of the PCT request form). More information on "self-designation" can be obtained from the national patent offices concerned.

As regards the EPC contracting states, the problem of self-designation exclusively concerns Germany (DE), and only if protection via the grant of a national patent in Germany is sought, i.e. if the application actually enters the German national phase. The designation of Germany for the purposes of a European patent is not considered a self-designation and is thus not affected. Consequently, there is no reason for withdrawing the automatic designation of EP. If a non-designation of Germany is not indicated upon filing, the international application can still enter the German national phase; however, if this is effected, the earlier German national application will be deemed withdrawn.

The national law of a number of EPC contracting states stipulates that only a European patent may be obtained for these states on the basis of an international application. The countries which close off the route to a national patent in this way are Belgium (BE), Cyprus (CY), France (FR), Greece (GR), Ireland (IE), Latvia (LV), Lithuania (LT), Monaco (MC), Montenegro (ME), Malta (MT), Netherlands (NL), San Marino (SM) and Slovenia (SI).