The 2023 Guidelines For Examination Enter Into Force

Recently, 1 March 2023, the EPO published its updated EPC and PCT-EPC Guidelines for Examination. They have been available to preview for the last month but have now officially entered into force.

Should you wish to see the changes that have been made since the 2022 Guidelines, PDF versions of both sets of Guidelines are available that show the modifications. These can be obtained by using the link “Hyperlinked, showing modifications” in the “Download” box, which is toward the right-hand side of the page.

Public Consultation

As part of the EPO’s review process, they are encouraging users to submit feedback on the new 2023 Guidelines via a survey accessible here before 4 April 2023. This will provide anonymized feedback to the EPO’s SACEPO Working Party on Guidelines in May 2023 to help improve the Guidelines for users in 2024.