The EPO ‘10 day rule’ on letter delivery ends on 1st November 2023.
Historically, the EPO sent out letters to applicants and their representatives by registered post. To make sure that nobody was disadvantaged by the differing lengths of time postal delivery took from the EPO to the various member countries of the European Patent Convention (EPC), Rule 126 EPC set out that letters were deemed to be delivered on the tenth day following it being handed over to the postal service (i.e. the date on the letter).
This is important because many time limits on European patent applications and patents are calculated from the deemed date of delivery.
Now that approximately 99% of communications from the European Patent Office (EPO) are sent electronically, the EPO is ending application of the ’10 day rule’, on the basis that it’s just not needed any more.
From 1st November 2023, all documents (decisions, summonses, notices and communications) sent by the EPO will be deemed to be delivered on the date given on the document. All time limits for any document dated on or after 1st November 2023 will be calculated from the date on the document – NOT 10 days later.
For any documents dated before 1st November 2023, the 10 day rule continues to apply for calculation of time limits.
The EPO has provided a handy illustration of this change, and how it affects time limit calculation, which you can see here: OJ EPO 2023, A29 – Notice from the European Patent Office dated 6 March 2023 concerning amended Rules 126, 127 and 131 EPC
Many attorney firms have routinely used the 10 day rule when docketing deadlines for responding to EPO communications, so will need to change their docketing systems to reflect the new regime. At Two IP we have always preferred to keep the 10 days in our back pocket as an emergency bit of extra time in the case of receiving very late instructions from a client or overseas attorney firm, so our systems are already fully compliant.
The rule change will make the calculation of time limits much simpler – if you add the 10 days at the end rather than the start, you can quite easily get the time limit wrong.
To ensure you stay up to date with any future procedural changes, join our mailing list to receive our monthly newsletter directly to your inbox. Click here to sign up.
