|
|
The Present Recent trends have also made changes necessary in order to bring the Convention into line with modern international patent law and treaties. The amended definition of patentable inventions in Article 52 EPC, which now refers to inventions “in all fields of technology,” harmonises this aspect of the EPC with the definition in the first sentence of Article 27 (1) of the TRIPS agreement. Similarly, the definition of priority right in Article 87 EPC has been amended so that priority can be based on filings in WTO countries as well as on filings in countries party to the Paris Convention as provided by Article 2 of TRIPS. Of equal importance are the amendments to Articles 14 and 80 EPC and Rules 40 and 56 EPC, which align the EPC with corresponding provisions in the Patent Law Treaty 2000. When the EPC 2000 comes into force, these amendments will enable applicants to file European patent applications in any language and obtain a filing date by merely providing a reference to an earlier application. In addition, if parts of an application are missing on filing, an applicant can make good the omissions and retain the original filing date by showing that the omitted parts appeared in an earlier application from which priority is claimed.
|
