What is Notice of Allowance at the European Patent Office (EPO)?

Question

A key questions form a seminar is:

What are the necessary steps for obtaining a Notice of Allowance at the European Patent Office (EPO)?

What does the notice grant?

Answer 1

As to what is a Notice of Allowance at the EPO, it is the communication under R.71(3) EPC whereby the Examining Division informs the applicant that the application meets the requirements of the European Patent Convention.

The communication encloses what is called the druckexemplar, which will be the text and drawings of the European patent if accepted by the applicant. Said druckexemplar includes the documents of the patent application as they were modified during prosecution of the application, and may include modifications proposed by the Examining Division. The Examining Division may modify the description, the figures and the claims so that the application fully complies with the European Patent Convention. By filing the translation of the claims into the two other official languages of the EPC (English, French and German), and paying the corresponding fees, the applicant accepts the druckexemplar (including any modifications made by the Examining Division). Accepting the druckexemplar is the sole responsibility of the applicant, therefore any problems that may be present in the description and/or claims (the modifications made by the Examining Division may cause such problems) may eventually result in the revocation of the European Patent later on in Opposition proceedings, so one should review the druckexemplar very carefully before accepting it.