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BLOG@IP::JURPatent Attorney Axel H Horns' Blog on Intellectual Property Law.
Friday, May 07, 2004EPO: No Right to claim Priority on the Basis of WTO/TRIPS Membership alone.The Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBE) has written in a Decision dated April 26, 2004 on cases G 0002/02 and G 0003/02:"The TRIPs Agreement does not entitle the applicant for a European patent application to claim priority from a first filing in a State which was not at the relevant dates a member of the Paris Convention but was a member of the WTO/TRIPs Agreement."The EBE argues that the European Patent Organisation as an international organisation having an internal legal system of its own, the EPC. The boards of appeal of the EPO have the task of ensuring compliance with the autonomous legal system established by the EPC and are bound by the provisions of the EPC alone (Article 23(3) EPC). In this task, however, the boards also refer to legal sources outside the EPC, including, for example, the VCLT 1969 and the TRIPs Agreement. Thus, while the boards of appeal may be guided in their decisions by the provisions of other international instruments, they have no obligation to apply them directly.
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