EPO Summarizes EPC 2002 Transitional Provisions

The revised version of the European Patent Convention ("EPC 2000") will enter into force on 13 December 2007 at the latest. The European patent Office has now provided a brief summary of those transitional provisions that will be particularly important in practice (see OJ EPO 2007, Special Edition No. 1, 196 ff), and describes how they will be implemented by the EPO.

More detailed information on the transitional phase can be found in " Implementation of the Decision of the Administrative Council of 28 June 2001 on the transitional provisions under Article 7 of the Act revising the European Patent Convention of 29 November 2000 ", which is available (in English only) at http://www.epo.org/patents/law/legal-texts/InformationEPO/archiveinfo/20070912.html.