EPO Rule Changes April 2010

The European Patent Office has passed certain rule changes that come into force on 1 April 2010, including:

• severely limiting the time perious for filing divisional applications;
• requiring, within a very short time limit, a response to a Search Opinion accompanying a European search report or to a Chapter I report (“IPRP”) or Chapter II report (“IPER”) drawn up by the EPO against a PCT application; and
• mandatory election of claims to be searched where there are multiple claims in the same category.

For a Powerpoint presentation of these changes, please click here.