SONN Patentanwälte – IP Attorneys

Accession of Poland to the EPC per 1.3.2004

Poland joins the European Patent Convention (EPC); European patents with effect in Poland may be received as from 1 March 2004. Further candidates for joining the EPC in 2004 are Lithuania, Latvia, Malta, Iceland and Norway.

1. Accession to the EPC

On 30 December 2004, the Government of the Republic of Poland (PL) deposited its instrument of accession to the European Patent Convention (EPC) and to the Act revising the EPC of 29 November 2000. The EPC will accordingly enter into force for Poland on 1 March 2004.

The European Patent Organisation will thus comprise the following 28 member states as from 1 March 2004:
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

Further information concerning the effects of the accession and the provisions which Poland has enacted for the implementation of the EPC will be published in later issues of the Official Journal of the European Patent Office.

2. Important information

European patent applications filed on or after 1 March 2004 will include the designation of the new contracting state*. It will not be possible to designate Poland retroactively in applications filed before that date. To allow the new contracting state to be designated, however, the EPO will accord European patent applications filed in February 2004 the filing date of 1 March 2004 if the applicant expressly requests that filing date when filing the application.

3. PCT

Nationals of Poland and persons having their principal place of business or residence in Poland will also be entitled, as from 1 March 2004, to file international applications with the European Patent Office as receiving Office.

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* See Section 32.1 of the Request for Grant form (EPA/EPO/OEB Form 1001 09.03; OJ EPO 2004, 43). Poland will be included in a new version of the form.

To obtain a reduction in the examination fee under Rule 6(3) EPC and Article 12(1) RFees, the request for examination may be worded as follows in Polish:

"Niniejszym wnosi sie o badanie zgloszenia na podstawie art. 94." (see Section II, point 5, of the Notes on Form 1001).

As Section 5 (left-hand column) already contains a preprinted written request for examination in the EPO's official languages, the recommended procedure is to enter the written request for examination in Polish in the right-hand column of Section 5. The request for examination in this language may however also be submitted later at any time before the examination fee is paid (see decision J 21/98 of the Legal Board of Appeal, published in OJ EPO 2000, 406).