EUROPEAN PATENT ORGANISATION
The Slovak Republic, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Estonia accede to the European Patent Convention1
1. Accession to the EPC
(a) On 17 April 2002, the Government of the Slovak Republic (SK) deposited its instrument of accession to the European Patent Convention (EPC) and to the Act revising the EPC of 29 November 2000.
(b) On 30 April 2002, the Government of the Republic of Bulgaria (BG) deposited its instrument of accession to the European Patent Convention (EPC) and to the Act revising the EPC of 29 November 2000.
(c) On 30 April 2002, the Government of the Czech Republic (CZ) deposited its instrument of accession to the European Patent Convention (EPC) and to the Act revising the EPC of 29 November 2000.
(d) On 30 April 2002, the Government of the Republic of Estonia (EE) deposited its instrument of accession to the European Patent Convention (EPC) and to the Act revising the EPC of 29 November 2000.
The EPC will accordingly enter into force for these states on 1 July 2002.
The European Patent Organisation will thus comprise the following 24 member states as from 1 July 2002:
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
Further information concerning the effects of these accessions and the provisions which these states have enacted for the implementation of the EPC will be published in later issues of the Official Journal.
2. Important information
European patent applications filed on or after 1 July 2002 will include the designations of the new member states.2 It will not be possible to designate these states retroactively in applications filed before that date.
To allow the new member states to be designated, however, the EPO will accord European patent applications filed in June 2002 the filing date of 1 July 2002 if the applicant expressly requests that filing date when filing the application.
3. PCT
Since all the new member states are PCT contracting states, their nationals and persons having their principal place of business or residence in any of them will also be entitled, as from 1 July 2002, to file international applications with the European Patent Office as receiving Office. Furthermore, the states may be designated for a European patent in international applications filed on or after 1 July 2002. If the European patent designation box ("EP") is selected in the PCT request (PCT/RO/101), that designation will automatically include the new member states.
1 See also the advance announcement on the EPO website.
2 See Section 32.1 of the Request for Grant form (EPA/EPO/OEB Form 1001 07.99; OJ EPO 1999, 359). This continues to be the applicable version while a new version is being prepared.
To obtain a reduction in the examination fee under Rule 6(3) EPC and Article 12(1) RFees, the request for examination may be worded as follows:
in Bulgarian: "Да се извърши експертиза на заявката съгласно чл 94."
in Estonian: "Taotlusele palutakse teha artikli 94 kohane ekspertiis."
in Slovak: "Podl'a článku 94 sa žiada o prieskum prihlášky."
in Czech language: "Žádá se o průzkum přihlášky podle článku 94."
(see Section II, point 5, of the Notes on Form 1001). As Section 5 (left-hand column) of Form 1001 already contains a preprinted written request for examination in the EPO's official languages, the recommended procedure is to enter the written request for examination in Bulgarian, Estonian or Slovak in the right-hand column of Section 5. The request for examination in any of these languages may however also be submitted later at any time before the examination fee is paid (see decision J 21/98 of the Legal Board of Appeal, published in OJ EPO 8-9/2000, 406). This practice also applies to the other admissible non-EPO languages. Section II, point 5, of the Notes on Form 1001 will be amended accordingly when the Notes are revised.