The President of the European Patent Office, having regard to Rules 141(1) and (2) and Rule 70b(1) and (2) of the European Patent Convention (EPC), has decided as follows:

Article 1 Inclusion of a copy of the search results in the file of a European patent application

The European Patent Office shall include in the file of a European patent application a copy of the search results referred to in Rule 141(1) EPC where a search report of the following type was drawn up by the European Patent Office on an application whose priority is claimed:

European search report (Article 92 EPC)

international search report (Article 15(1) PCT)

international-type search (Article 15(5) PCT)

search report made on behalf of a national office on a national application (Belgium, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Turkey).

In these cases, the applicant shall be exempted from filing a copy of the search results under Rule 141(1) EPC.

1 See notice from the European Patent Office dated 28 July 2010 concerning amended Rule 141 EPC and new Rule 70b EPC utilisation scheme, OJ EPO 2010, 410.

Article 2 Entry into force

This decision shall enter into force on 1 January 2011 and shall apply to European patent applications and international applications filed on or after that date.

Done at Munich, 5 October 2010

Benot BATTISTELLI President

References: r141;