Entitlement to priority

13 July 2022

The President of the
EPO yesterday submitted written comments to the Enlarged Board of Appeal on
consolidated cases G 1/22 and G 2/22,
„Entitlement to priority“. The referrals concern the question whether the EPO under
Article 87(1) EPC
has the competence to examine an applicant’s entitlement to claim, as successor
in title, the priority of a patent application filed by another person. The
referring board also seeks clarification on whether the joint filing of an
international (PCT) patent application fulfils the requirements of Article
87(1) EPC when priority is claimed from a patent application that was filed by only
some of the applicants for the PCT application.

The written comments
are available as of today in the publicly accessible files in the European
Patent Register.