OJ EPO 2010, 350 - Decision of the President of the European Patent Office dated 11 May 2010 concerning the entrustment to non-examining staff of certain duties normally the responsibility of the examining or opposition divisions

The President of the European Patent Office, having regard to Rule 11(3) EPC, has decided as follows:

Article 1

The following point 31 shall be added to Article 1 of the decision of the President of the European Patent Office dated 12 July 2007 concerning the entrust- ment to non-examining staff of certain duties normally the responsibility of the examining or opposition divisions (see Special edition No. 3, OJ EPO 2007, F.2.):

"31. Invitations under Rule 161(1) and Rule 162 EPC."

Article 2 Entry into force

OJ EPO 2010, 351 - Notice from the European Patent Office dated 3 May 2010 concern- ing the extension of time limits under Rule 134 EPC

1. Ash clouds from the Icelandic volcanic eruption have led to a standstill of air traffic across Europe. This substantially affected postal and delivery services, resulting in an interruption/dislocation in the delivery of mail from 15 to 28 April 2010.

2. As this interruption/dislocation affected inter alia Germany and the Netherlands, time limits to be observed vis--vis the EPO which would have expired in the period from 15 to 28 April 2010 have been extended pursuant to Rule 134(2) EPC to 29 April 2010 in regard of all parties and representatives. This

OJ EPO 2010, 352 - Notice from the European Patent Office dated 4 May 2010 concerning the programme for accelerated prosecution of European patent applications "PACE"

The entry into force of new Rule 70a and amended Rule 161 EPC means updating the PACE programme. The revised PACE programme 1 takes account in particular of the changes to the European grant procedure which entered into force on 1 April 2010 concerning the applicant's obligation to file a substantive response under Rule 70a or Rule 161(1) EPC to

the extended European search report (EESR), the written opinion of the International Search Authority (WO-ISA) drawn up by the EPO, the international preliminary exam-

OJ EPO 2010, 377 - Notice from the European Patent Office dated 10 June 2010 concerning enclosure of a standard acknowledgement of receipt (EPO Form 2936) in the case of notifications by registered letter with advice of delivery

1. Decisions incurring a period for appeal or a petition for review, and summonses to oral proceedings (Rule 115 EPC) or to the taking of evidence (Rule 118 EPC), are notified by the European Patent Office (EPO) by registered letter with advice of delivery (Article 119 and Rule 126(1) EPC).

2. As a result of differing delivery regulations in individual states, advices of delivery are often either not returned to the EPO at all or else returned without being completed at the receiving end.

OJ EPO 2010, 394 - Serbia accedes to the European Patent Convention

1. Accession to the EPC On 15 July 2010, the Government of the Republic of Serbia (RS) deposited its instrument of accession to the European Patent Convention (EPC).

The EPC will accordingly enter into force for Serbia on 1 October 2010.

The European Patent Organisation will thus comprise the following 38 member states from 1 October 2010:

OJ EPO 2010, 402 - Communication from the Enlarged Board of Appeal concerning case G 1/10

In accordance with Article 112(1)(a) EPC, Technical Board of Appeal 3.5.03 referred the following points of law to the Enlarged Board of Appeal by its inter- locutory decision of 17 June 2010 in case T 1145/09:

1. Is a patent proprietor's request for correction of the grant decision under Rule 140 EPC which was filed after the initiation of opposition proceedings admissible? In particular, should the absence of a time limit in Rule 140 EPC be interpreted such that a correction under Rule 140 EPC of errors in deci-

OJ EPO 2010, 406 - Notice from the European Patent Office dated 29 June 2010 concerning communications under amended Rule 161 EPC

By decisions dated 25 March 2009 1 and 27 October 2009 2, the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organi- sation amended Rule 36(1) EPC and Rule 161 EPC with effect from 1 April 2010.

The EPO has already issued information about these amendments in Notices dated 20 August 2009 3, 15 October 2009 4 and 26 October 2009 5. Sections A-IV, 1 and C-VI, 3.5.1 of the revised Guidelines for Examination in the EPO, which came into force on 1 April 2010, moreover, provide a detailed explanation of EPO practice under the amended

OJ EPO 2010, 410 - Notice from the European Patent Office dated 28 July 2010 concerning amended Rule 141 EPC and new Rule 70b EPC utilisation scheme

1. Introduction

The Utilisation Pilot Project (UPP) run between April 2007 and August 2008 has shown that work carried out during the priority year on a first filing at a national patent office (NPO) can be further utilised by the EPO when pro- secuting the subsequent European patent application and that such utilisation would be beneficial to the European patent system.

OJ EPO 2010, 454 - Communication from the Enlarged Board of Appeal concerning case G 2/10

In accordance with Article 112(1)(a) EPC, Technical Board of Appeal 3.3.08 referred the following point of law to the Enlarged Board of Appeal by its inter- locutory decision of 25 June 2010 in case T 1068/07:

"Does a disclaimer infringe Article 123(2) EPC if its subject-matter was disclosed as an embodiment of the invention in the application as filed?"

The text of the referral is available in English on the EPO website under www.epo.org/patentss/appeals/ eba-decisions/referrals/pending.html.

OJ EPO 2010, 456 - Decision of the Enlarged Board of Appeal dated 19 February 2010 G 2/08

(Language of the proceedings)

Composition of the board:

Chairman: P. Messerli, Members: J.-P. Seitz, P. Alting van Geusau, B. Gnzel, U. Kinkeldey, S. Nathanael, B. Schachenmann

Appellant/Applicant: Abbott Respiratory LLC Headword: Dosage regime/ABBOTT RESPIRATORY Relevant legal provisions: EPC Art. 53(c), 54(4), 54(5) Relevant legal provisions (EPC 1973):