News & Resources

11.01.22

EPO survey on the possible introduction of a grace period

The EPO is conducting a survey of European patent applicants as part of a study on whether it would be worthwhile to introduce a US-style grace period for patent filings.

A grace period in this context means a period before the patent filing date (e.g. a year in the US) during which the applicant can disclose the invention to the public without invalidating the later patent. There is currently no grace period for European patent filings, so any disclosure before the priority date of the patent can be damaging. The EPO would like to understand how the existing system affects applicants and whether introducing a grace period would be helpful.

The survey will be conducted either by telephone or online questionnaire, and a random sample of EPO applicants will be contacted. If you are a regular user of the EPO system then we would recommend responding to the survey if contacted, especially if you would like to see a grace period introduced by the EPO.

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