GL E VIII 8.3 Statement of withdrawal

Any statement of withdrawal must be unqualified and unambiguous. It may, however, be conditional upon, e.g. avoidance of publication or refund of the examination fee.

GL E VIII 8.2 Withdrawal of priority claim

The priority claim may also be withdrawn (see F‑VI, 3.5). If this is done before the technical preparations for publication of the application are completed, the publication will be deferred until eighteen months after the date of filing of the European application or, where multiple priorities are claimed, the earliest priority date remaining (see A‑VI, 1.1, and A‑III, 6.3).

GL E VIII 8.1 Withdrawal of application or designation

Applicants may withdraw their application at any time as long as the application is pending, provided that no third parties have proven to the EPO that they have initiated proceedings concerning entitlement to the application pursuant to Rule 14.

GL E VIII 8 Renunciation of rights

8.1 Withdrawal of application or designation

8.2 Withdrawal of priority claim

8.3 Statement of withdrawal

8.4 Surrender of patent

GL E VIII 7 Enquiries

In specific cases, parties to proceedings before the EPO may have an interest in enquiring about the progress of the file and thus obtaining information on when the next Office action is to be expected.

GL E VIII 6 Accelerated processing before the boards of appeal

Parties with a legitimate interest may ask the boards of appeal to deal with their appeals rapidly. The boards can speed up an appeal as far as the procedural regulations allow. Requests for accelerated processing must be submitted to the competent board either at the beginning of or during proceedings. They must contain reasons for the urgency together with relevant documents.

GL E VIII 5 Accelerated processing of oppositions

In cases where an infringement action in respect of a European patent is pending before a national court of a contracting state, a party to the opposition proceedings may request accelerated processing. The request may be filed at any time. It must be filed in written reasoned form. In addition, the EPO will also accelerate the processing of the opposition if it is informed by the national court or competent authority of a contracting state that infringement actions are pending (see the Notice of the EPO dated 17 March 2008, OJ EPO 2008, 221).

GL E VIII 4.3 Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH)

The Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) enables an applicant whose claims have been determined to be allowable to have a corresponding application which has been filed with a PPH partner office processed in an accelerated manner while at the same time allowing the offices involved to exploit available work results. A request before the EPO must be filed before substantive examination has begun.

A PPH request can be based on:

GL E VIII 4.2 Accelerated examination

Accelerated examination can, in principle, be requested at any time after the examining division has assumed responsibility for the application (Rule 10(2), (3)).

For PCT applications entering the European phase where the EPO also acted as (S)ISA, accelerated examination can, in principle, be requested at any time, for example

– on entry into the European phase before the EPO

GL E VIII 4.1 Accelerated search

For European patent applications filed on or after 1 July 2014 (including PCT applications entering the European phase where the EPO did not act as (S)ISA) the EPO strives to issue the extended/partial European search report within six months from the filing date or from expiry of the period under Rule 161(2).