Guidelines for Examination in the European Patent Office

March 2022 edition

The Guidelines for Examination give instructions on the practice and procedure to be followed in the various aspects of the examination of European applications and patents in accordance with the European Patent Convention and its Implementing Regulations.

Content description

By decision of the President of the EPO dated 16 December 2021 and pursuant to Article 10(2) EPC, the Guidelines for Examination have been amended. As announced in the Notice from the EPO dated 16 December 2021 (OJ EPO 2022, A10), the new Guidelines apply as from 1 March 2022.

The Guidelines have the following eight-part structure:

• Part A: Guidelines for Formalities Examination
• Part B: Guidelines for Search
• Part C: Guidelines for Procedural Aspects of Substantive Examination
• Part D: Guidelines for Opposition and Limitation/Revocation Procedures
• Part E: Guidelines on General Procedural Matters
• Part F: The European Patent Application
• Part G: Patentability
• Part H: Amendments and Corrections

Part A outlines the procedures for formalities examination, mainly with regard to grant proceedings. Part B deals with search matters. Parts C and D relate to procedures to be followed in examination and opposition proceedings, respectively.

Part E summarizes procedural matters relevant to several or all of the stages in proceedings before the EPO. It also contains information about the procedure before the EPO as designated or elected Office, applicable to Euro-PCT applications.

Substantive requirements of the procedures under the EPC are explained in Parts F, G and H:

• Part F defines the requirements which the application must fulfil other than patentability, in particular unity of invention (Art. 82), sufficiency of disclosure (Art.83), clarity (Art. 84) and the right to priority (Art. 87 to Art. 89).
• Part G deals with the requirements of patentability provided for in Art. 52 to Art.57, in particular exclusions from patentability (Art. 52(2) and Art. 53), novelty (Art. 54), inventive step (Art. 56) and industrial application (Art. 57).
• Part H deals with the requirements relating to amendments and corrections, in particular to questions of admissibility (Rule 80 and Rule 137) and compliance with Art. 123(2) and (3), Rule139 and Rule140.

Feedback on this edition

The EPO actively seeks feedback on the most recent edition of the Guidelines in a public user consultation each spring, but users are welcome to send suggestions for additions or improvements at any time of the year to patentlaw@epo.org

Available formats and amendments

The revised Guidelines for Examination (March 2022) are available online in the EPO's three official languages in both HTML and PDF format. The printed version has been discontinued.

Amendments in the 2022 revision have been made in all eight parts in order to bring the text into line with legal and procedural developments.

The amendments can be viewed in the HTML publication by ticking the "Show modifications" box in the upper right corner, which displays inserted text with a green background and deleted text in red strikethrough font. For sections in which no changes have been made, the tick box is greyed out. The EPO website also provides downloadable versions of the Guidelines in PDF format as clean copy and as version showing all modifications.

The HTML and PDF versions contain:

1. a non-exhaustive alphabetical keyword index;
2. an index dedicated to computer-implemented inventions (CII), with a collection of direct hyperlinks to the relevant chapters in the Guidelines;
3. a full list of the sections which have been amended, together with the corresponding hyperlinks.

Please use our advanced search to search within full-text HTML versions of EPO legal texts. You can limit your search to one or more of these texts.

Important notice: The March 2022 edition of the Guidelines is the only valid official version, and supersedes the March 2021 edition as from 1 March 2022.