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Guidelines for Examination in the European Patent Office
The Guidelines for Examination in the European Patent Office (or, for short, the EPO Guidelines) are general instructions for examiners of the European Patent Office (EPO), patent attorneys, and any other party interacting with the EPO. They may be useful to understand how the EPO grants software patents. The document is revised annually.[1]
While it is expected that the Examining Divisions follow the EPO Guidelines, case law of the Boards of Appeal has made clear that they are not rules of law,[2] and that they are only bound by the text of the European Patent Convention.[3]
Related pages on ESP Wiki
- Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (manual of the USPTO)
References
- ↑ Guidelines revision cycle[archived], epo.org.
- ↑ T 0500/00 (Polymer for light-assisted curing of coatings and method for producing it) of 2004-06-17[EPO][E-Justice], ECLI:EP:BA:2004:T050000.20040617, paragraph 2.6.1.
- ↑ Case Law of the Boards of Appeal - Guidelines not binding on boards[archived], epo.org, July 2022.
