The European Patent Office has passed certain rule changes.

 

These changes came 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.