Note:
In many jurisdictions, IP rights are only granted after a thorough examination of formal and substantive requirements. The EPO-EPC Guidelines for Examination (available at www.epo.org) detail the practice and procedure to be followed when examining patent applications before the European Patent Office (EPO) in
accordance with the European Patent Convention (EPC) and its Implementing Regulations. However, the official versions are no longer available in print form, and the digital versions have been optimised for on-screen use.
Our Indexed version improves on the official version by:
completely modifying and re-ordering the contents to fully use the Letter (approx. A4) page size. This reduces the number of pages from approx. 1000 to less than 500 pages, making printing with a legible font size feasible. This also improves the overview of the contents of adjacent paragraphs, which often relate to the paragraphs being studied.
annotating the end each paragraph with the most relevant legal basis based on the original margin references. The original paragraph numbering is retained so that exisiting references in other resources can be followed.
providing our flowchart (in color on the cover and B / W inside) to illustrate the procedure, together with references to the relevant paragraphs of the Guidelines.
replacing the official contents per part by our single Detailed Table of Contents. We have abbreviated the paragraph headings to allow quick scanning, added page numbers to speed up getting to the correct page, and indicated sections with significant changes in the last 3 years.
This book is suitable as a desktop reference for everyday use by attorneys and administrators. IP law is highly complex and continuously changing, so always double check the status with the latest official resources - this version is expected to be legally valid from 1 Mar 2021 to 28 Feb 2022.
This book is also suitable for anyone studying European Patent Law and exam candidates. For European Qualifying Exam (EQE) candidates, this is the official version for EQE 2022 Main Exam & Pre-Exam. |
