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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 53

Exceptions to patentability

European patents shall not be granted in respect of:

(a)inventions the commercial exploitation of which would be contrary to “ordre public” or morality; such exploitation shall not be deemed to be so contrary merely because it is prohibited by law or regulation in some or all of the Contracting States;

(b)plant or animal varieties or essentially biological processes for the production of plants or animals; this provision shall not apply to microbiological processes or the products thereof;

(c)methods for treatment of the human or animal body by surgery or therapy and diagnostic methods practised on the human or animal body; this provision shall not apply to products, in particular substances or compositions, for use in any of these methods.

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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