THE ADMINISTRATIVE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN PATENT ORGANISATION,
Having regard to the European Patent Convention (hereinafter referred to as “EPC”) and in particular Article 33(1)(c) thereof,
On a proposal from the President of the European Patent Office,
Having regard to the opinion of the Committee on Patent Law,
HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS:
Article 1
The Implementing Regulations to the EPC shall be amended as follows:
- Rule 1 shall read as follows:
“In written proceedings before the European Patent Office, the requirement to use the written form shall be satisfied if the content of the documents can be reproduced in a legible form.”
2. Rule 22(1) shall read as follows:
“The transfer of a European patent application shall be recorded in the European Patent Register at the request of an interested party, upon production of documents providing evidence of such transfer. Rule 2, paragraph 2, shall apply mutatis mutandis to the signature of the parties to the contract.”
3. Rule 22(2) shall read as follows:
“Registration of the transfer may be subject to the payment of an administrative fee under the conditions laid down by the President of the European Patent Office. Where a fee is due, the request shall not be deemed to have been filed until the administrative fee has been paid. It may be rejected only if paragraph 1 has not been complied with.”
4. Rule 41(2)(c) shall read as follows:
“the name, address and nationality of the applicant and the State in which their residence or principal place of business is located. Names of natural persons shall be indicated by the person’s family name, followed by their given names. Names of legal persons, as well as of bodies equivalent to legal persons under the law governing them, shall be indicated by their official designations. Addresses shall be indicated in accordance with applicable customary requirements for prompt postal delivery and shall comprise all the relevant administrative units, including the house number, if any. It is recommended that the telephone numbers be indicated;”
5. Rule 41(2)(d) shall read as follows:
“the representative’s name and the address of their place of business as prescribed in sub-paragraph (c), if the applicant has appointed a representative;”
6. Rule 41(2)(h) shall read as follows:
“(h) the signature of the applicant or their representative;”
7. Rule 147(3) shall read as follows:
“(a) Documents incorporated in an electronic file shall be considered to be originals.
(b) The initial version of such documents filed on paper or on a data carrier shall only be destroyed after expiry of at least five years. This preservation period starts at the end of the year in which the document was incorporated in the electronic file.”
8. Rule 152(2) shall read as follows:
“Where a representative fails to file such an authorisation, the European Patent Office shall invite them to do so within a period to be specified. The authorisation may cover one or more European patent applications or European patents.”
9. Rule 152(4) shall read as follows:
“A general authorisation may be filed enabling a representative to act in respect of all the patent transactions of a party.”
10. Rule 152(8) shall read as follows:
“A representative shall be deemed to be authorised until the termination of their authorisation has been communicated to the European Patent Office.”
11. Rule 152(11) shall read as follows:
“The authorisation of an association of representatives shall be deemed to be an authorisation of any representative who can provide evidence that they practise within that association.”
Article 2
The provisions in Article 1, paragraph 7, of this decision shall apply to all European patent applications and patents, with the proviso that the five- year preservation period stipulated in Rule 147(3) EPC as amended for the initial version of documents filed on data carriers does not expire before 31 December 2024, irrespective of the date on which the document was incorporated into the electronic file.
Article 3
Rules 1,22, 41, 147 and 152 EPC as amended by Article 1 of this decision will enter into force on 1 April 2024.
Done at Munich, 14 December 2023
For the Administrative Council
The Chairperson Josef
