Under the EPC 1973, an application could be filed in an official EPO language (Art. 14(1) EPC 1973) or, by persons benefiting from the "language privilege", in an official language of a contracting state other than English, French or German (Art. 14(2) EPC 1973).

According to J 4/88 (OJ 1989, 483, see headnote), for the purposes of Art. 14(2) EPC 1973 and R. 6(3) EPC 1973 it was sufficient if the description and claims were filed in an official language of a contracting state other than English, French or German; it was not significant for this purpose that other parts of the European patent application were filed in one of the official languages of the EPO only (further to J 7/80, OJ 1981, 137 – see in this chapter III.F.1.). If the applicant availed himself of the option provided in Art. 14(2) EPC 1973 both the filing fee and the examination fee were reduced (R. 6(3) EPC 1973).