EPO to abolish "10-day" rule

EPO to abolish "10-day" rule

The European Patent Office recently announced that it will abolish the "10-day" rule from November 1, 2023.

Article 126(2) of the European Patent Convention involves the "10-day" rule, that is, the registered letter will be delivered by default on the tenth day after it is sent. This rule has been in use since the 1970s, mainly for official notifications sent by registered mail. According to this regulation, the deadline is calculated from the 10th day from the date of publication. For example, for a 4-month deadline, if the publication date is January 1, 2022, then 4 months will be counted from January 11, 2022, that is, the deadline is May 11, 2022.

The original intention of this rule is to avoid the impact of delays in mailing services, mainly involving: correction of formal error notices, notices of payment of additional fees for Claim, and official notices related to rules 161, 162, 94(3) etc. . In addition, this rule applies to official notifications related to the appeal process.

However, with the full promotion of paperless in the EPO, all EPO documents have been fully electronicized. arrival date.

The abolition of this rule will have a great impact on the majority of patent agencies and applicants, and agencies will only have a more limited time to convey to the applicant after losing 10 days, and there will be a lot of delays in the transfer of documents. The agency needs to improve.

At present, the European Patent Office has not issued relevant transitional measures for the change of this rule. The page number will continue to pay attention and remind everyone.

(*Editor: Corresponding to the 10-day rule of the European Patent Office, Chinese patents also have a similar 15-day rule. With the abolition of the 10-day rule of the EPO, whether Chinese patents will be changed accordingly, we will wait and see)