The 2024 guidelines were pre-released today and will come into force on March 1st. Users can submit comments and take part in a small survey on the annual revision cycle as part of the consultation until April 2nd.
The EPO today publishes the English preliminary versions of the EPC and PCT-EPO Guidelines 2024. These guidelines come into force on March 1, 2024. As every year, users have the opportunity to provide feedback on the new editions as part of a consultation. Comments can be submitted until April 2, 2024.
Your opinion counts – that’s why we’ve expanded this year’s user consultation to include a small survey on the guidelines’ revision cycle. The EPO also plans to publish guidelines for the unitary patent procedure in 2025. In order to make their content as useful as possible, we would like to know what is most important to you in relation to the future guidelines for the unitary patent. We would therefore be pleased if you could take a moment – your feedback will help us to develop the guidelines for the unitary patent procedure.
The Guidelines for Examination in the European Patent Office (“EPC Guidelines”) and the Guidelines for Search and Examination in the European Patent Office as a PCT Authority (“PCT-EPO Guidelines”) provide instructions regarding the practices and procedures at the examination of European and international applications and patents in accordance with the European Patent Convention (EPC) and the Treaty on International Cooperation in the Field of Patents (PCT) as well as their implementing regulations.
The Guidelines illustrate the law and practice in proceedings before the EPO and have become an important and popular reference for external parties. They are updated once a year to reflect new legal and procedural changes.
The anonymized comments will be discussed at the first of two annual meetings of the SACEPO Guidelines Working Group on April 25, 2024.
We look forward to valuable contributions and active participation.
2024-02-01 13:42:55
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