European Patent Office – Updated PCT-EPO Guidelines

The European Patent Office (EPO) has announced that the Guidelines for Search and Examination at the EPO as PCT Authority (“PCT-EPO Guidelines”), which relates to the practice and procedure to be followed in various aspects of the handling of international applications before the EPO as ISA and IPEA, have been amended with effect from 1 March 2023.

Amendments have been made to all parts of the PCT-EPO Guidelines.  The major change is the expansion of Part A, which now includes a new Chapter VIII on representation containing information applicable to all procedures.  Other amendments aim at further improving the text of the previous edition or at updating it.

For further information, please refer to:

https://www.epo.org/law-practice/legal-texts/official-journal/2023/01/a7/2023-a7.pdf

The updated PCT-EPO Guidelines have been published as a complete March 2023 edition that supersedes the March 2022 edition, and are available in English, French and German at:

https://www.epo.org/law-practice/legal-texts/guidelines-pct.html