Notice from the European Patent Office dated 28 August 2007 concerning the publication of a revised version of the Arrangements for deposit accounts and their annexes
The revision of the European Patent Convention, the Implementing Regulations thereto and the Rules relating to Fees1 has necessitated a corresponding revision of the Arrangements for deposit accounts (ADA) and their annexes.
The main substantive changes concern the adaptation of the automatic debiting procedure to the new or altered procedures under the revised Convention, in particular the extended application of the remedy of further processing under Article 121, Rule 135 EPC 2000. These changes are reflected both in the Arrangements for the automatic debiting procedure (AAD)2 themselves (see especially points 3, 6 and 11 AAD) and in the accompanying Information from the EPO concerning the automatic debiting procedure3.
Additionally, various individual amendments have been made to provide greater clarification of the debiting procedures or to take account of developments in practice and technical advances since the previous version of the Arrangements entered into force. These concern in particular point 2 ADA (Formalities for opening an account), point 5.3 ADA, point 6 ADA (Debiting the account), including new point 6.11, and new point 7 ADA (Revocation of a debit order). The Arrangements for Online Fee Payment via My.epoline® (ADA Annex B.1) have also been brought up to date. Regarding account shortfalls see points 6.4 and 6.5 ADA, point 7 AAD, point 3.6 Annex B.1 to the ADA and point 3.6 Annex B.2 to the ADA.
The references to the numbers of the provisions of the revised Convention, Implementing Regulations and Rules relating to Fees have been adapted as appropriate.
Lastly, various editorial amendments have been made, and fax numbers and e-mail addresses updated as necessary.
Given the varied and detailed nature of the changes, users are recommended to read the individual provisions of the revised texts carefully.