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The Future The Convention has also been revised with an eye to the future. Most notably, under amended Article 33 (1)(b) EPC the Administrative Council may make changes to the Convention in order to align it with international treaties and Community legislation. In addition, Article 87 (5) EPC now simplifies the procedure for recognising new sources of priority rights through the issue of a Presidential Communication. New Article 149a EPC provides for future agreements between the Contracting States and for the EPO’s involvement in them, such as the formation of a common entity for delivering opinions on European and harmonised national patent law. New Article 4a EPC creates a basis for future intergovernmental conferences of the Contracting States leading to agreements beyond the scope of the EPC, along the lines of the ad hoc intergovernmental conferences in 1999 and 2000 which gave rise to the London Agreement on Translations and the European Patent Litigation Agreement. All these changes introduce much-needed adaptability into the EPC. Probably the most noticeable change, however, is the transfer of many of the more detailed provisions of European patent law into the Implementing Regulations. This will make future revision of the EPC far easier since the Implementing Regulations can be amended by the Administrative Council without the need for a full diplomatic conference followed by national ratification. As a practical matter, however, this means that practitioners will need to refer to the Implementing Regulations much more frequently than in the past.
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