EPO Accelerated Prosecution Procedure (PACE)

• Published date: 08 June 2021
• Subject Matter: Intellectual Property, Patent, Trademark
• Law Firm: J A Kemp LLP
• Author: Mr Chris Milton and Mark Roberts

It is possible at the EPO to accelerate the search and/or examination of any application using the accelerated prosecution procedure (PACE)¹. To use the procedure, it is necessary to file a PACE request online using the appropriate form. Other than this, there are no special requirements to qualify for PACE: the request can be filed at any time, no official fee is payable and no special reasons need be given.

The EPO will accept the request for accelerated prosecution where "practically feasible and subject to the workload of search and examining divisions". In practice, PACE requests are usually accepted. In certain technical fields, current backlogs may mean that PACE requests are in practice ineffective. In addition, applicants who routinely request PACE for all or most of their applications will be required by the EPO to select a subset of applications for acceleration.

Requests for acceleration of the search procedure and requests for acceleration of the examination procedure need to be filed separately. It is only possible to file requests for acceleration of the examination procedure after responsibility for the application has passed to the examining division.

Once PACE has been requested, the EPO aims to issue a search report within 6 months. For examination, the EPO aims to produce an examination report within 3 months, and any further examination reports within 3 months of the applicant's response.

Applications are removed from PACE if: (i) the PACE request is withdrawn, (ii) the applicant extends a time limit, or (iii) the application is refused, withdrawn or deemed withdrawn. It is possible to file a request for PACE only once during the search phase and only once during the examination...