Limitation and revocation procedures before the European Patent Office

In European patent law, the limitation and revocation procedures before the European Patent Office (EPO) are post-grant, ex parte, administrative procedures allowing any European patent to be centrally limited by an amendment of the claims or revoked, respectively. 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.

Until a decision of the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the EPO of 1994, namely G 9/93 (reverting earlier decision of the same instance of 1985, namely G 1/84), it was possible for the proprietor of a European patent to oppose its own patent with the aim of centrally limiting it. Decision G 9/93 however deprived patent proprietors of this opportunity. This means that, after G 9/93, the only possibility for the proprietor of a European patent to voluntarily limit the scope conferred by its patent (e.g. for instance to strengthen the patent in view of some newly discovered prior art documents and/or in advance of envisaged litigation) was to request such limitation at the national level, i.e. before the national patent offices or competent courts of the Contracting States, if permitted. The EPC of 1973 made no provision for a limitation procedure, and a fortiori no provision for centrally limiting a European patent before the EPO after the nine-month period for filing an opposition (nine months as from the date of grant of the European patent).

The travaux préparatoires laid out the rationale for a limitation procedure:

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