[1] The EPC 2000 does not introduce any major changes in substantive patent law,[2][3] except changes concerning novelty,[4] industrial applicability and priority rights.
[2] A diplomatic conference was held from 20 November to 29 November 2000 in Munich to revise the Convention on the Grant of European Patents of 5 October 1973, amongst other things to integrate in the EPC new developments in international law, especially those of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs Agreement) and of the Patent Law Treaty, and to add a level of judicial review of the Boards of Appeal decisions.
[6] In addition, since not all the contracting states had deposited their instruments of ratification or accession by September 30, 2007, the EPC 2000 entered into force on December 13, 2007.
A reference is now made to the Implementing Regulations, which are now in line with "the worldwide standard laid out in Article 5 of the Patent Law Treaty 2000 (PLT)".
"[23] The priority rights are extended to filing in or for any member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), in addition to any state party to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.
[25] Extensive changes were also made to the possibilities for the legal remedy of the failure to observe various time limits within the European patent system.
[27] Under the EPC 1973, the failure to observe the time limits for paying these fees could only be remedied by strict grace periods.
[38] Article 112a EPC 2000 introduces a procedure for contesting the decisions of the boards of appeal by filing a petition for review.
[40] The petition is in fact a restricted form of judicial review, limited to examining serious errors of procedure which might have been committed by the Legal or Technical Boards of Appeal, prejudicing the right to a fair hearing of one or more appellants.
However, the Legal Board of Appeal in case J 10/07 decided, in order to reflect the intention and purpose of those transitional provisions, to apply Articles 106 and 108 as applicable before the entry into force of the EPC 2000 (i.e.