On 13th December 2007, the European Patent Convention 2000 (EPC2000) will come into effect. EPC2000 is a revision of the European Patent Convention of 1973 (EPC1973), and the revised text integrates new developments in international law, a World Trade Organisation treaty (setting minimum standards for many forms of intellectual property regulation), and the Patent Law Treaty (which seeks to harmonize formal procedures, including the requirements to obtain a filing date for a patent application).
The new law will apply to all European patent applications, and to European patents granted on the basis of those applications, which are filed on or after 13th December 2007, when the EPC2000 enters into force. Most of the provisions of EPC2000 also apply to applications already pending at that date and to patents already granted (details of how EPC2000 will affect granted EP patents is laid down in the transitional provisions adopted by the Administrative Council).
The EPC2000 differs from the EPC1973 in that there is less bureaucracy, lower overall costs, and improved legal remedies for deficient aspects of the application process. In summary, under the EPC2000:
- “Further processing” of EP patent applications will become the standard legal remedy when applicants fail to observe a time limit.
- A filing date can be accorded to EP patent applications filed without any claims and can also be accorded by reference to a previous application.
- A declaration of priority can be made or corrected after the filing date and a re-establishment of rights is now possible in respect of the priority period
- Uniform protection of second and further medical uses of known substances will be allowable.
- An EP patent application can be filed in any language provided that a translation is subsequently submitted in one of the EPO’s Official Languages (English, French and German).
- All contracting states will be automatically designated on filing EP patent applications and thus,
- All EP patent applications filed before but published after the filing date of a given EP patent application will be potentially citable as a novelty destroying documents.
- A patentee may limit or even revoke their EP patent at any time during the lifetime of the patent.
- A petition can be made to the Enlarged Board of Appeal for the review of decisions of the boards of appeal in the event of a fundamental procedural violation during the appeal proceedings or if a criminal act had an impact on the outcome of the appeal.
The EPC2000 will come into effect by 13th December 2007 at the latest. Any contracting state to the EPC1973 which has not acceded to the EPC2000 by this date will cease to be party to the Convention as from that date (A172(4) EPC1973). At the time of writing, France, Italy, and Portugal, and the extension states Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia are yet to accede to the EPC2000 (http://www.epo.org/patents/law/legislative-initiatives/epc2000/status.html), However, the French and Italian parliaments are understood to have adopted the relevant Act revising the EPC, and it can be expected that their instruments of ratification will be deposited on time.
It is surprising that France has not yet deposited its instrument of ratification of the EPC2000 as it recently deposited its instrument to ratify the London Agreement, which is widely anticipated to come into force early 2008. Thus, while it may not be necessary to file a French translation of the description of EP patents once the London agreement comes into effect, the French government will need to act quickly to ratify the EPC2000 so that it will still be possible to cover France with an EP patent application after 13th December 2007! | 
