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European Patent Convention

Preamble

Article 10 – Management

Article 11 – Appointment of senior employees

Article 12 – Duties of office

Article 13 – Disputes between the Organisation and the employees of the European Patent Office

Article 14 – Languages of the European Patent Office, European patent applications and other documents

Article 15 – Departments entrusted with the procedure

Article 16 – Receiving Section

Article 17 – Search Divisions

Article 18 – Examining Divisions

Article 19 – Opposition Divisions

Article 20 – Legal Division

Article 21 – Boards of Appeal

Article 22 – Enlarged Board of Appeal

Article 23 – Independence of the members of the Boards

Article 24 – Exclusion and objection

Article 25 – Technical opinion

Article 26 – Membership

Article 27 – Chairmanship

Article 28 – Board

Article 29 – Meetings

Article 30 – Attendance of observers

Article 31 – Languages of the Administrative Council

Article 32 – Staff, premises and equipment

Article 33 – Competence of the Administrative Council in certain cases

Article 34 – Voting rights

Article 35 – Voting rules

Article 36 – Weighting of votes

Article 37 – Budgetary funding

Article 38 – The Organisation's own resources

Article 39 – Payments by the Contracting States in respect of renewal fees for European patents

Article 40 – Level of fees and payments – Special financial contributions

Article 41 – Advances

Article 42 – Budget

Article 43 – Authorisation for expenditure

Article 44 – Appropriations for unforeseeable expenditure

Article 45 – Accounting period

Article 46 – Preparation and adoption of the budget

Article 47 – Provisional budget

Article 48 – Budget implementation

Article 49 – Auditing of accounts

Article 50 – Financial Regulations

Article 51 – Fees

Article 52 – Patentable inventions

Article 53 – Exceptions to patentability

Article 54 – Novelty

Article 55 – Non-prejudicial disclosures

Article 56 – Inventive step

Article 57 – Industrial application

Article 63 – Term of the European patent

Article 64 – Rights conferred by a European patent

Article 65 – Translation of the European patent

Article 66 – Equivalence of European filing with national filing

Article 67 – Rights conferred by a European patent application after publication

Article 68 – Effect of revocation or limitation of the European patent

Article 69 – Extent of protection

Article 70 – Authentic text of a European patent application or European patent

Article 75 – Filing of a European patent application

Article 76 – European divisional applications

Article 77 – Forwarding of European patent applications

Article 78 – Requirements of a European patent application

Article 79 – Designation of Contracting States

Article 80 – Date of filing

Article 81 – Designation of the inventor

Article 82 – Unity of invention

Article 83 – Disclosure of the invention

Article 84 – Claims

Article 85 – Abstract

Article 86 – Renewal fees for the European patent application

Article 90 – Examination on filing and examination as to formal requirements

Article 91 – (deleted)

Article 92 – Drawing up of the European search report

Article 93 – Publication of the European patent application

Article 94 – Examination of the European patent application

Article 95 – (deleted)

Article 96 – (deleted)

Article 97 – Grant or refusal

Article 98 – Publication of the specification of the European patent

Article 99 – Opposition

Article 100 – Grounds for opposition

Article 101 – Examination of the opposition – Revocation or maintenance of the European patent

Article 102 – (deleted)

Article 103 – Publication of a new specification of the European patent

Article 104 – Costs

Article 105 – Intervention of the assumed infringer

Article 105a – Request for limitation or revocation

Article 105b – Limitation or revocation of the European patent

Article 105c – Publication of the amended specification of the European patent

Article 106 – Decisions subject to appeal

Article 107 – Persons entitled to appeal and to be parties to appeal proceedings

Article 108 – Time limit and form

Article 109 – Interlocutory revision

Article 110 – Examination of appeals

Article 111 – Decision in respect of appeals

Article 112 – Decision or opinion of the Enlarged Board of Appeal

Article 112a – Petition for review by the Enlarged Board of Appeal

Article 113 – Right to be heard and basis of decisions

Article 114 – Examination by the European Patent Office of its own motion

Article 115 – Observations by third parties

Article 116 – Oral proceedings

Article 117 – Means and taking of evidence

Article 118 – Unity of the European patent application or European patent

Article 119 – Notification

Article 120 – Time limits

Article 121 – Further processing of the European patent application

Article 122 – Re-establishment of rights

Article 123 – Amendments

Article 124 – Information on prior art

Article 125 – Reference to general principles

Article 126 – (deleted)

Article 127 – European Patent Register

Article 128 – Inspection of files

Article 129 – Periodical publications

Article 130 – Exchange of information

Article 131 – Administrative and legal co-operation

Article 132 – Exchange of publications

Article 142 – Unitary patents

Article 143 – Special departments of the European Patent Office

Article 144 – Representation before special departments

Article 145 – Select committee of the Administrative Council

Article 146 – Cover for expenditure for carrying out special tasks

Article 147 – Payments in respect of renewal fees for unitary patents

Article 148 – The European patent application as an object of property

Article 149 – Joint designation

Article 149a – Other agreements between the Contracting States

Article 150 – Application of the Patent Cooperation Treaty

Article 151 – The European Patent Office as a receiving Office

Article 152 – The European Patent Office as an International Searching Authority or International Preliminary Examining Authority

Article 153 – The European Patent Office as designated Office or elected Office

Article 154 – (deleted)

Article 155 – (deleted)

Article 156 – (deleted)

Article 157 – (deleted)

Article 158 – (deleted)

Article 164 – Implementing Regulations and Protocols

Article 165 – Signature – Ratification

Article 166 – Accession

Article 167 – (deleted)

Article 168 – Territorial field of application

Article 169 – Entry into force

Article 170 – Initial contribution

Article 171 – Duration of the Convention

Article 172 – Revision

Article 173 – Disputes between Contracting States

Article 174 – Denunciation

Article 175 – Preservation of acquired rights

Article 176 – Financial rights and obligations of former Contracting States

Article 177 – Languages of the Convention

Article 178 – Transmission and notifications

Article 23

Independence of the members of the Boards

(1)The members of the Enlarged Board of Appeal and of the Boards of Appeal shall be appointed for a term of five years and may not be removed from office during this term, except if there are serious grounds for such removal and if the Administrative Council, on a proposal from the Enlarged Board of Appeal, takes a decision to this effect. Notwithstanding sentence 1, the term of office of members of the Boards shall end if they resign or are retired in accordance with the Service Regulations for permanent employees of the European Patent Office.

(2)The members of the Boards may not be members of the Receiving Section, Examining Divisions, Opposition Divisions or Legal Division.

(3)²⁴ In their decisions the members of the Boards shall not be bound by any instructions and shall comply only with the provisions of this Convention.

(4)²⁵ The Rules of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal and the Enlarged Board of Appeal shall be adopted in accordance with the Implementing Regulations. They shall be subject to the approval of the Administrative Council.

Legal Texts

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Part I – General and institutional provisions

Chapter I – General provisions

Chapter II – The European Patent Organisation

Chapter III – The European Patent Office

Chapter IV – The Administrative Council

Chapter V – Financial provisions

Part II – Substantive patent law

Chapter I – Patentability

Chapter II – Persons entitled to apply for and obtain a European patent – Mention of the inventor

Chapter III – Effects of the European patent and the European patent application

Chapter IV – The European patent application as an object of property

Part III – The European patent application

Chapter I – Filing and requirements of the European patent application

Chapter II – Priority

Part IV – Procedure up to grant

Part V – Opposition and limitation procedure

Part VI – Appeals procedure

Part VII – Common provisions

Chapter I – Common provisions governing procedure

Chapter II – Information to the public or to official authorities

Chapter III – Representation

Part VIII – Impact on national law

Chapter I – Conversion into a national patent application

Chapter II – Revocation and prior rights

Chapter III – Miscellaneous effects

Part IX – Special agreements

Part X – International applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty – Euro-PCT applications

Part XI – Transitional provisions

Part XII – Final provisions

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