Applicants may withdraw their international application, one or more designations, priority claims, their request for supplementary international search, their demand or any or all elections by filing a notice of withdrawal within the prescribed time limits. Any such withdrawal is free of charge.[Rule 90bis.1; 90bis.4; ]

A notice of withdrawal must be signed by the applicant or, if there are two or more applicants, by all of them. It may instead be signed, on behalf of the applicant(s), by the duly appointed agent or common representative, but not by the "deemed" common representative under Rule 90.2(b). If the agent or the common representative has not yet been duly appointed, a power of attorney signed by all the applicants has to be submitted together with the notice of withdrawal; the requirement to submit a power of attorney to the EPO is not waived in such cases. If such a power of attorney is not filed together with the notice of withdrawal, the EPO will request the applicant(s) to submit one and the withdrawal will take effect on the date of its receipt. If no power of attorney is received before the expiration of the time limit for filing a withdrawal, the request for withdrawal will not be processed.[Rule 90bis.5; ]

Moreover, the EPO will only process unqualified and unambiguous notices of withdrawal. If in doubt, the EPO will seek clarification of the applicant's or applicants' intention before any action is undertaken.[J 11/80; ]