Posts Tagged ‘EPO’

I just heard a rumor that the administrative council of the European Patent Office (EPO) has voted to amend the rule setting a 24-month time limit within which European divisional applications may be filed. According to the rumor, the only criteria for filing a divisional application would be that the EPO application be pending as of the divisional filing date. This change is supposed to take effect as of April 1, 2014.

I’ll let you know if this is correct or not!

Priority – Article 4A of the Paris Convention

(1) Any person who has duly filed an application for a patent, or for the registration of a utility model, or of an industrial design, or of a trademark, in one of the countries of the Union, or his successor in title, shall enjoy, for the purpose of filing in the other countries, a right of priority during the periods hereinafter fixed.

(2) Any filing that is equivalent to a regular national filing under the domestic legislation of any country of the Union or under bilateral or multilateral treaties concluded between countries of the Union shall be recognized as giving rise to the right of priority.

On June 9, 2010, the UK Court of Appeal successfully avoided ruling on a 2009 decision by the England and Wales High Court (Patent Court) confirming the decision of the Board of Appeals of the EPO in case No. T 0788/05[1] which held that priority can only be claimed by the identical applicant(s) of the relevant earlier application or his valid successor in title[2].