Amended Guidelines effective as of 01 January 2013

The following Guidelines were amended, effective as of 01 January 2013:

The prior versions can still be found here.

Amendments are not marked-up in the official versions. For ease of follow-up, the amendments are tracked below (based on the version effective until 31 December 2012, deletions are struck out and additions are underlined):

Guidelines on Proceedings before the Federal Patent Court

The Federal Patent Court intends to conduct its proceedings in accordance with the following Guidelines. The, but the decision on how to proceed in a specific case shall will however be left to the discretion of the competent panel. determined depending on the specific case.

Art. 2     Form of legal submissions

1 (unamended)

2 (unamended)

3 Upon receiving a legal submission, the Federal Patent Court will examine it for compliance with the requirements of para. 1 and 2 above and Art. 3–5 of these Guidelines and, if necessary, set a deadline for correction. Where no correction is made or is insufficient, the submission may be considered to not have been made as provided for in Art. 132 para. 1 CCP.

4 Where a party does not file its submission electronically as defined in Art. 130 para. 2 CCP but rather in paper format, it shall additionally submit it electronically as a text-based PDF or MS-Word file. In so doing, the provisions of Art. 130 para. 2 CCP need not be respected. (repealed)

5 Submissions in paper format shall be filed in quintuplicate, exhibits in duplicate. (repealed)

6 (unamended)

Art. 4     Requirements pertaining to nucleotide and amino acid sequence listings

1 Where nucleotide and/or amino acid sequences are indicated in a legal submission or or contested patent, they shall be rendered in accordance with WIPO standard ST.25 (standard for the representation of nucleotide and amino acid sequence listings in international patent applications, www.wipo.int/standards/en/pdf/03-25-01.pdf).

2 The Court may demand, also upon the motion of one of the parties to the proceeding, that a standardised electronic version of the nucleotide and/or amino acid sequences indicated in the legal submission or contested patent be filed as provided for in para. 1. Any such standardised electronic version of nucleotide and/or amino acid sequences shall be submitted in accordance with WIPO standard ST.25 in electronic format as provided for in Art. 130 para. 2 CCP or on a commonly used electronic data carrier.

Art. 8     Preparatory hearing

1 (unamended)

2 (unamended)

3 The court delegation taking part in the preparatory hearing consists of the President or the instructing judge appointed by him or her and the designated specialist judge. and a court clerk.

4 (unamended)

5 (unamended)

6 (unamended)

Guidelines on Independence

The Federal Patent Court intends to proceed in accordance with the following Guidelines with regard to ensuring its independence. The decision on how to proceed in a specificspecifics of each case shall be left to the discretion of the competent panel.will be considered.

Reported by Martin WILMING

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