Decision of the President of the European Patent Office dated 8 April 2021 exempting applicants claiming the priority of a first filing made in the Peopleʹs Republic of China from filing a copy of the search results under Rule 141(1) EPC.

EPO has recently decided that from 1 July 2021 the applicant claiming priority of a first filing made in China is exempted from filing a copy of search results.

An applicant claiming priority shall file a copy of the results of any search carried out by the authority with which the previous application was filed (Rule 141(1) EPC). The copy shall be deemed to be duly filed if it is available to the EPO and to be included in the file of the European patent application under the conditions determined by the President of the EPO (Rule 141(2) EPC).

Currently EPO exempts the applicant from filing the copy of the search results, where the priority of a first filing made in one of the following states is claimed: Austria, Denmark, Japan, Republic of Korea, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States of America. From 1 July 2021 the applicant claiming priority of a first filing made in China is exempted from filing a copy of search results (see the Decision of the President of the EPO dated 8 April 2021, OJ EPO 2021, A38).