MUNICH - The EPC and PCT-EPO Guidelines 2024, published in preview mode a month ago, entered into force, superseding the editions of March 2023, according to the official website of the European Patent Office (EPO). 

The new EPC and PCT-EPO Guidelines are published in the EPO's three official languages on the EPO website, where they can be downloaded in PDF format or accessed section by section in HTML format. The PDF version is available both as a "clean copy" and as a version showing all modifications. Within each section of the HTML version, changes in the new edition can be displayed by selecting the "Show modifications" box in the top right-hand corner. A full list of the sections which have been amended, together with corresponding hyperlinks, is published alongside the corresponding Guidelines.

Public consultation

A public user consultation on the 2024 edition of the Guidelines is underway and will run until April 2, 2024. We encourage you to submit comments via the dedicated webform. These anonymized comments will be reviewed by the SACEPO Working Party on Guidelines in April 2024. Your feedback will enable us to better understand your needs and help us to improve the 2025 editions of the EPC and PCT-EPO Guidelines. This year, we have expanded our user consultation to include questions on the EPO’s Guidelines revision process itself.

In addition to the EPC and PCT-EPO Guidelines, the EPO intends to publish Guidelines on the Unitary Patent (UP) procedure in 2025. The consultation webform includes a free text box where you can make suggestions and help to shape the UP Guidelines.