Chapter III

The European Patent Office shall be managed by the President, who shall be responsible for its activities to the Administrative Council.

The President of the European Patent Office shall be appointed by the Administrative Council.

Employees of the European Patent Office shall be bound, even after the termination of their employment, neither to disclose nor to make use of…

Employees and former employees of the European Patent Office or their successors in title may apply to the Administrative Tribunal of the…

The official languages of the European Patent Office shall be English, French and German.

To carry out the procedures laid down in this Convention, the following shall be set up within the European Patent Office:

The Receiving Section shall be responsible for the examination on filing and the examination as to formal requirements of European patent…

The Search Divisions shall be responsible for drawing up European search reports.

The Examining Divisions shall be responsible for the examination of European patent applications.

The Opposition Divisions shall be responsible for the examination of oppositions against any European patent.

The Legal Division shall be responsible for decisions in respect of entries in the Register of European Patents and in respect of registration on…

The Boards of Appeal shall be responsible for the examination of appeals from decisions of the Receiving Section, the Examining Divisions and…

The Enlarged Board of Appeal shall be responsible for:

The members of the Enlarged Board of Appeal and of the Boards of Appeal shall be appointed for a term of five years and may not be removed from…

Members of the Boards of Appeal or of the Enlarged Board of Appeal may not take part in a case in which they have any personal interest, or if they…

At the request of the competent national court hearing an infringement or revocation action, the European Patent Office shall be obliged, on payment…

The term of the European patent shall be 20 years from the date of filing of the application.

A European patent shall, subject to the provisions of paragraph 2, confer on its proprietor from the date on which the mention of its grant is…

Any Contracting State may, if the European patent as granted, amended or limited by the European Patent Office is not drawn up in one of its official…

A European patent application which has been accorded a date of filing shall, in the designated Contracting States, be equivalent to a regular…

A European patent application shall, from the date of its publication, provisionally confer upon the applicant the protection provided for by Article…

The European patent application and the resulting European patent shall be deemed not to have had, from the outset, the effects specified in Articles…

The extent of the protection conferred by a European patent or a European patent application shall be determined by the claims. Nevertheless, the…

The text of a European patent application or a European patent in the language of the proceedings shall be the authentic text in any proceedings…

Subject to paragraph 2, no person shall be compelled to be represented by a professional representative in proceedings established by this Convention.

Natural persons or legal persons may only be represented in the procedures established by this Convention by professional representatives whose names…

The Administrative Council shall be competent to adopt and amend provisions governing:

Articles 66, 124, 135, 137 and 139 shall apply to utility models and utility certificates and to applications for utility models and utility…

Renewal fees for a European patent may only be imposed for the years which follow that referred to in Article 86, paragraph 2.

Any group of Contracting States, which has provided by a special agreement that a European patent granted for those States has a unitary character…

The group of Contracting States may give additional tasks to the European Patent Office.

The group of Contracting States may lay down special provisions to govern representation of parties before the departments referred to in Article…

The group of Contracting States may set up a select committee of the Administrative Council for the purpose of supervising the activities of the…

Where additional tasks have been given to the European Patent Office under Article 143, the group of Contracting States shall bear the expenses…

If the group of Contracting States has fixed a common scale of renewal fees in respect of European patents the proportion referred to in Article 39…

Article 74 shall apply unless the group of Contracting States has specified otherwise.

The group of Contracting States may provide that these States may only be designated jointly, and that the designation of one or some only of such…

Nothing in this Convention shall be construed as limiting the right of some or all of the Contracting States to conclude special agreements on any…

The Patent Cooperation Treaty of 19 June 1970, hereinafter referred to as the PCT, shall be applied in accordance with the provisions of this Part.

The European Patent Office shall act as a receiving Office within the meaning of the PCT, in accordance with the Implementing Regulations. Article…

The European Patent Office shall act as an International Searching Authority and International Preliminary Examining Authority within the meaning of…

The European Patent Office shall be

The Implementing Regulations, the Protocol on Recognition, the Protocol on Privileges and Immunities, the Protocol on Centralisation, the Protocol on…

This Convention shall be open for signature until 5 April 1974 by the States which took part in the Inter-Governmental Conference for the setting up…

This Convention shall be open to accession by:

Any Contracting State may declare in its instrument of ratification or accession, or may inform the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany by…

This Convention shall enter into force three months after the deposit of the last instrument of ratification or accession by six States on whose…

Any State which ratifies or accedes to this Convention after its entry into force shall pay to the Organisation an initial contribution, which shall…

The present Convention shall be of unlimited duration.

This Convention may be revised by a Conference of the Contracting States.

Any dispute between Contracting States concerning the interpretation or application of the present Convention which is not settled by negotiation…

Any Contracting State may at any time denounce this Convention. Denunciation shall be notified to the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany…

In the event of a State ceasing to be party to this Convention in accordance with Article 172, paragraph 4, or Article 174, rights already acquired…

Any State which has ceased to be a party to this Convention in accordance with Article 172, paragraph 4, or Article 174, shall have the special…

This Convention, drawn up in a single original, in the English, French and German languages, shall be deposited in the archives of the Government of…

The Government of the Federal Republic of Germany shall draw up certified true copies of this Convention and shall transmit them to the Governments…