Insights: The "10 Day Rule" Is Going

The Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) has reported that the Administrative Council of the EPO passed a package of rules, on 13 October 2022, which includes an amendment of Rule 126(2) EPC removing what has become well-known as the "10 day rule". The package of rules is intended to "adapt the rules of the EPC to the digital age".

The legal fiction of the "10 day rule" arose due to previous reliance on physical postal deliveries of communications and served to account for the delay between the issuance of communications by the EPO and their receipt. To account for this delay, a communication is generally deemed to have been delivered 10 days after the date of notification, resulting in a grace period of approximately 10 days for deadlines set by reference to the date of notification. The grace period applies only to deadlines which are set with reference to the date of notification (for example, examination reports) as opposed to those triggered by