INTERNATIONAL TREATIES
Budapest Treaty
Conversion of deposits of micro-organisms made outside the purview of the Budapest Treaty to deposits made within the purview of the Budapest Treaty
1. An extraordinary session of the Assembly of the Budapest Union in September 1990 unanimously adopted a new understanding whereby the date of receipt of a deposit made outside the Treaty and the date of receipt of the request for conversion must be indicated by the international depositary authority, the legal consequences of the deposit during the period between the two dates being determined by national (regional) law.
The Director General of WIPO has therefore amended the international deposit receipt form (BP/4) issued by the international depositary authority.
2. For the purposes of the European patent grant procedure (Rule 28 EPC), deposits of micro-organisms made outside the purview of the Budapest Treaty must be converted no later than the date of filing of the European patent application to deposits made within the purview of the Budapest Treaty1.
1 Cf. the European Patent Office's notice dated 18 July 1986 concerning European patent applications and patents in which reference is made to micro-organisms, OJ EPO 1986, 269, and in particular 271 and 272, points 7 and 8.