Indexed EPO-EPC Guidelines (1 Mar 2021)

Book excerpt: In many jurisdictions, IP rights are only granted after a thorough examination of formal and substantive requirements. The EPO-EPC Guidelines for Examination (available at www.epo.org) detail the practice and procedure to be followed when examining patent applications before the European Patent Office (EPO) in accordance with the European Patent Convention (EPC) and its Implementing Regulations. Our Indexed version improves on the official version by abbreviating entries and grouping the entries at the front to allow quick scanning, using page numbers to speed up getting to the correct page, indicating sections with significant changes in the last 3 years, and modifying the contents to fully use the page size to give better overviews of paragraphs. This book is suitable as a desktop reference for everyday use by attorneys and administrators. IP law is highly complex and continuously changing, so always double check the status with the latest official resources - this version is expected to be legally valid from 1 Mar 2021 to 28 Feb 2022. This book is also suitable for anyone studying European Patent Law and exam candidates. For European Qualifying Exam (EQE) candidates, this is the official version for EQE 2022 Main Exam & Pre-Exam.