November 2005: Austrian patent law changes
On 1 July 2005 the Austrian patent law changed. All laid open patent applications are now published 18 months after the filing date. Previously, they were only available on request from the Austrian Patent Office.
In addition the Austrian Patent Office has adopted a post-grant opposition system in which the opposition period expires two months after the date of the grant. The date of the grant will also now be the same as the publication date of the kind B documents.
These changes will be reflected in Derwent World Patents Index (DWPI) as follows:
1. Old Law applications will continue to publish. For example, the document with the application number A 8044/2004 will be output in DWPI with the publication number AT 200408044 A
2. New Law applications will publish with publication numbers starting from 500001. The first New Law applications, issued with a publication date of 15th October 2005, will be included in DWPI update 200574 starting, for example, with the publication number AT 500001 An, where n is 1-9 as per the patent kind list below.
3. Old Law granted patents will continue to have the same format, for example: AT 413063 B
4. New Law patents will have the following format:
AT 500001 Bn - where n is 1-9 as per the patent kind list below:
The full list of Austrian patent kinds available in DWPI is as follows:-
A Old Law application (examined patent application)
A1 Publication of application with search report
A2 Publication of application without search report
A4 A2 document published on same day as the B doc with no corresponding A3.
A8 Corrected title page of Austrian A document
A9 Complete reprint of Austrian A document
B Old Law patent (granted patent)
B1 Patent
B2 Patent amended after opposition
B8 Corrected title page of Austrian B document
B9 Complete reprint of Austrian B document
The New Law Patent Number will be remain with that patent throughout its lifetime,
i.e. the Patent Number of the application document will be the same as that
for the granted patent, and for any subsequent amendment (e.g. after opposition).
Only the Patent Kind Code will change.