OJ EPO 2013, 600 - Decision of the President of the European Patent Office dated 21 November 2013 concerning the responsibilities of the Legal Division

The President of the European Patent Office, having regard to Article 20 and Rule 11(2) EPC, has decided as follows:

1. Sole responsibility for the following du ties shall be vested in the Legal Division:

1.1 Registers of representatives (a) Entry on, and deletion from, the list of professional representatives (Article 134(1) to (7) and Rule 154 EPC; Articles 4(1)(d) and (e) and 28(2) RDR).

(b) Registration and deletion of associa tions (Rule 152(11) EPC).

OJ EPO 2013, 601 - Decision of the President of the European Patent Office dated 21 November 2013 concerning the entrustment to non-legally qualified staff of certain duties incumbent on the Legal Division

The President of the European Patent Office, having regard to Articles 10(2)(a) and 20 EPC, has decided as follows:

Article 1 Entrustment to formalities officers of specific duties incumbent on the Legal Division

Within the framework of the respon sibilities of the Legal Division, certain employees (formalities officers) who are not legally qualified members of the Legal Division shall be entrusted with the following duties:

OJ EPO 2013, 602 - Decision of the President of the European Patent Office dated 21 November 2013 concerning the entrustment to non-examining staff of certain duties incumbent on 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 Entrustment to formalities officers of specific duties incumbent on the examining or opposition divisions of the EPO

(1) Points 25 and 26 of Article 1 of the decision of the President of the Euro pean Patent Office dated 12 July 2007 concerning the entrustment to nonex amining staff of certain duties normally the responsibility of the examining or opposition divisions (see Special edi tion 3, OJ EPO 2007, F.2) are deleted.

OJ EPO 2013, 603 - Notice from the European Patent Office dated 8 Novem ber 2013 concerning application of Rules 49 and 50 EPC to handwritten amendments

The European Patent Office (EPO) is working towards processing European patent applications and oppositions completely electronically, and to further improving the quality of its publications. In that context, it is introducing a sys tem to produce the Druckexemplar (text intended for publication) electronically. This means it must be able to capture submitted documents electronically in such a way that it can deal with them using textprocessing software which however is not possible for handwritten amendments.

Rule 49 EPC already requires the

OJ EPO 2013, 605 - Notice from the European Patent Office dated 20 December 2013 regarding the processing of documents filed by fax with the EPO at Berlin

In order to optimise the efficiency of handling incoming documents filed by fax, faxes sent to the EPO's official fax number in Berlin (+49 (0)30 25 901 840) are routed to the central fax server located in Munich. This will allow the direct rout ing of any file-related faxes to the elec tronic file.

As a consequence, European patent applications transmitted to the Berlin fax number will receive an application number from the Munich number range (see OJ EPO 2001, 465).

The above will apply as from 1 February 2014.

OJ EPO 2013, 606 - Official Journal to go fully electronic from 2014

From the beginning of 2014, the EPO's Official Journal will become an electroniconly publication.

In addition to an officially certified PDF file, which the Office will publish every month in place of the paper copy, the Official Journal pages on the EPO's website will include some new features designed to make users' daily work with the Official Journal easier.

Articles in HTML and PDF

OJ EPO 2013, 608 - Notice from the European Patent Office concerning the launch of an online complaints form

To meet rising demand from patent system users and society in general, the EPO is implementing new tools and processes to improve the quality, avail ability and timeliness of its services to external clients.

Despite these efforts, users may some times feel they have cause for com plaint. Therefore, as of 1 January 2014, the EPO is also adding a form to its website (www.epo.org/complaints) so that they can submit complaints more easily.

OJ EPO 2014, A1 - Report on the 138th meeting of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation (12 and 13 December 2013)

The Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation held its 138th meeting on 12 and 13 December 2013 under the chairmanship of Jesper Kongstad.

OJ EPO 2014, A2 - Composition of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation (as at January 2014)

OJ EPO 2014, A3 - Decision of the Administrative Council of 13 December 2013 amending Rule 103 of the Implementing Regulations to the European Patent Convention ( CA/D 16/13 )

THE ADMINISTRATIVE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN PATENT ORGANISATION,

Having regard to the European Patent Convention (hereinafter referred to as "EPC") and in particular Article 33(1)(c) EPC thereof,

On a proposal from the President of the European Patent Office,