Limitation and revocation procedures before the European Patent Office
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In European patent law, the limitation and revocation procedures before the European Patent Office (EPO) are post-grant, ex parte,[1] administrative[2] procedures allowing any European patent to be centrally[3] limited by an amendment of the claims or revoked, respectively.[4] These two procedures were introduced in the recently revised text of the European Patent Convention (EPC), i.e. the so-called EPC 2000, which entered into force on 13 December 2007.
The new Articles 105a, 105b and 105c EPC (of the EPC 2000) form the legal basis of the limitation and revocation procedures. These procedures are applicable since 13 December 2007 to all European patents, whether already granted or granted after that date.[5]