How to speed up EPO prosecution: PACE, PPH and the waivers

The baseline: how fast the EPO is without help

For applications filed since 1 July 2014, the EPO aims to issue the extended or partial European search report within 6 months of filing, or within 6 months of the end of the Rule 161(2) period for Euro-PCT applications it did not search as ISA. Its mean in 2024 was five and a half months (OJ EPO 2025, A69). That is why PACE no longer covers search.

Examination is the slow part. The EPO reports a mean of 24.2 months from the start of examination to grant for standard cases in 2025 (EPO examination quality data). On top of that, a direct application normally waits for the 6-month period after publication of the search report before examination can begin, because that is when the examination fee and the reply to the search opinion are due. Most of the time you can save is in those waiting periods and the gaps between examination actions.

PACE: accelerated examination

The programme for accelerated prosecution of European patent applications was revised by the notice of 16 December 2025. From 1 February 2026, Form 1005 covers only acceleration in the examination phase. The rules (OJ EPO 2025, A69; Guidelines E-VIII, 4):

• How: EPO Form 1005, filed online. Informal or paper requests are not processed. The request is free and is excluded from file inspection, so competitors cannot see it.
• When: once the examining division is responsible for the application. For a direct application that is after the request for examination and, where the fee was paid before the search report, after your reply to the Rule 70(2) invitation (Guidelines C-II, 1). For a Euro-PCT application where the EPO was ISA, at any time, including on entry or with the Rule 161(1) reply.
• Target: the EPO "makes every effort" to issue the next action within 3 months of the latest of: the examining division receiving the file, your reply under Rule 70a or Rule 161(1), or the PACE request. Later actions: within 3 months of each reply.
• Once only: one request per application in examination, one application per request.
• Removal: withdrawing the request, asking for an extension of time, or the application being refused, withdrawn or deemed withdrawn. There is no way back, even if the loss of rights is later remedied. An unpaid renewal fee suspends acceleration.
• Limits: subject to workload. Applicants who request PACE for all or most of their applications will usually be asked to choose.

For a Euro-PCT application where the EPO was ISA, a PACE request alone does not skip the 6-month Rule 161(1) period. Examination starts early only if you also waive that communication and meet its requirements on entry (Guidelines E-VIII, 4.1).

Waive the Rule 70(2) invitation: examination straight after search

Normally the EPO sends the search report with a search opinion, and the case waits until you reply and pay the examination fee. If you pay the examination fee before the search report is sent and waive your right to the Rule 70(2) invitation, the request for examination becomes unconditional. The examining division takes over as soon as the search report is sent, and instead of a search opinion you receive a first communication under Article 94(3), or a Rule 71(3) communication if the application is ready for grant (OJ EPO 2015, A94, point 1; Guidelines C-VI, 3 and B-XI, 7).

The cost is commitment. You pay €2,010 before you see the search results, and your reply period is now the one set in the examination communication, usually shorter than the 6 months after publication. The fee is refunded in full if you withdraw before substantive examination begins, and by 50% in some cases after that (Article 11 of the Rules relating to Fees). Use it when you are confident in your prior-art position. The guide to the European search report explains the normal route you would be skipping.

The same waiver exists for Euro-PCT applications that get a supplementary European search: tick the box on Form 1200 and the application goes straight to examination after the supplementary report, with no search opinion (Guidelines A-XII, 7.3).

Without the waiver, you can still save time on a direct application by not using the full period: pay the examination fee and file a full reply to the search opinion as soon as you have it, then file a PACE request.

Euro-PCT: early processing and the Rule 161/162 waiver

The EPO will not touch a PCT application before 31 months from priority unless you expressly ask for early processing under Articles 23(2) or 40(2) PCT. For the request to work you must meet the Rule 159(1) requirements as if the 31 months expired that day: fees, translation and so on (Guidelines A-XII, 7.1). Early processing is not a PACE request; file both if you want both.

After entry, the EPO normally issues a Rule 161/162 communication and waits 6 months for amendments or a reply. You can waive it on Form 1200 (section 6.4). The waiver works only if, on entry, you have also paid all claims fees and, where the EPO was ISA, replied to its written opinion or IPER. Otherwise the communication is sent anyway and the case waits the full 6 months, PACE or not (OJ EPO 2015, A94, points 2 to 5). If the communication has already been issued, you can file your amendments and request the immediate start of processing, giving up the rest of the period. See our guide to the European regional phase for the entry requirements.

The Patent Prosecution Highway with the USPTO and other offices

Under the IP5 PPH, extended indefinitely from 6 January 2023, a European application can be accelerated on the strength of claims found allowable by the USPTO, JPO, KIPO or CNIPA (OJ EPO 2022, A115). The work product can be a national office action indicating allowable claims, or a PCT written opinion or IPER from one of those offices as ISA or IPEA. The requirements:

1. The European application and the partner office's application share the same earliest date (priority or filing date).
2. At least one claim has been found patentable or allowable by the partner office.
3. All European claims sufficiently correspond to those claims: the same or narrower scope, allowing for format differences. A new claim category, such as product claims when only process claims were allowed, does not correspond.
4. Substantive examination at the EPO has not begun. The start date is shown in the European Patent Register for published applications.
5. You file EPO Form 1009 with a claim correspondence declaration, the office actions or PCT work product and the allowable claims (with translations, or a list for retrieval where the EPO can access them), and copies of cited non-patent literature.

Once accepted, the application is processed on PACE conditions. The EPO also runs PPH programmes with other offices (Guidelines E-VIII, 4.2): USPTO (United States), JPO (Japan), KIPO (Korea), CNIPA (China), ILPO (Israel), CIPO (Canada), IMPI (Mexico), IPOS (Singapore), IP Australia, SIC (Colombia), MyIPO (Malaysia), IPOPHL (Philippines), INPI (Brazil), INDECOPI (Peru), SAIP (Saudi Arabia), INAPI (Chile), IPONZ (New Zealand), MOIC (Bahrain). Programmes with Rospatent and the Eurasian office are suspended. PPH at the EPO is not available where the EPO itself was ISA or IPEA, because there is no other office's work to rely on; use PACE instead.

It works the other way too. A positive EPO work product can support a PPH request at the USPTO, JPO, KIPO or CNIPA, under those offices' own procedures, which are published on their websites.

The final stage: Rule 71(3)

When the examining division intends to grant, it sends the text and gives you 4 months to pay the fee for grant and publishing (€1,135), any claims fees, and file the claims in the other two EPO languages (Rule 71(3) to (5)). Doing so counts as approving the text. Nothing requires you to wait the 4 months; reply as soon as you have checked the text and the decision to grant follows (Rule 71a(1)). It cannot go out before the designation fee and any renewal fee falling due in the meantime are paid (Rule 71a(3) and (4)).

If you want small corrections, the default is a second Rule 71(3) communication. You can waive it (OJ EPO 2015, A52): in your reply, say expressly that you waive the further communication, pay the grant and claims fees, file the claim translations, and identify the amendments with the amended pages. If the division has no objection, it proceeds straight to grant. Check the text carefully: errors left in an approved text cannot be corrected after grant under Rule 140 (G 1/10).

All the options side by side

Putting it together: two examples

Euro-PCT, EPO as ISA

An applicant used the EPO as ISA and received a written opinion objecting to claim 1. On entry it files Form 1200 with amended claims and arguments answering the opinion, pays all fees including claims fees, ticks the Rule 161/162 waiver and files Form 1005. No Rule 161 communication issues, so the examining division can take the file once formalities are done, and the EPO's PACE target for the next action is 3 months from then. If that action is a Rule 71(3) communication, a reply within days rather than 4 months moves the grant forward again.

Direct filing with a US counterpart

A US company files at the USPTO and, within the priority year, at the EPO. The USPTO allows the US claims before the EPO starts substantive examination. The company files Form 1009 with the US claims, adapted to EPO format but no broader, and the European application is examined on PACE conditions. If substantive examination had already begun, PPH would be closed, and a PACE request would be the remaining option.

In both cases the applicant's own speed matters as much as the EPO's. Reply fully, avoid extensions (one request takes the application out of PACE), and keep renewal fees paid.

When not to accelerate

Speed has costs. Fees are paid earlier, the claim scope is fixed sooner, and once the parent is granted you can no longer file a divisional application from it. Waiving the Rule 70(2) invitation also gives up the long, cheap period to think between search report and examination. Accelerate when there is a product on the market, an infringer, an investor or a licensee waiting; otherwise the normal pace keeps options open at no extra cost. After grant, the choice between national validation and a unitary patent has its own one-month deadline, and the European patent application guide covers the full process.

More EPO guides

• How to file a European patent application

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• Patent drawing requirements: USPTO, EPO and India

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• How to write patent claims: USPTO, EPO and India

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• The Unitary Patent and the UPC, explained

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• EPO fees 2026: the full fee schedule

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• How much does a European patent cost?

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• European patent validation: countries and deadlines

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• The problem-solution approach to inventive step at the EPO

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• Software and AI patents in Europe

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• European patent opposition at the EPO

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• Supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) in Europe

  Who can get an SPC, how long it lasts, the filing deadline, the paediatric extension, the manufacturing waiver and the unitary SPC proposal.

• The European search report and EESR, explained

  X, Y and A citation categories, the search opinion, Rule 62a and 63 limited searches, and the Rule 70a deadline to reply.

• Entering the European phase from a PCT application

  The 31-month deadline, Rule 159 acts and fees, the supplementary search, Rule 161, translations and a worked example.

• European divisional applications under Rule 36 EPC

  When the parent is pending, fees by generation, back renewal fees, the Article 76 added-matter trap and timing.

• The European Patent Convention, annotated

  Key EPC Articles and Rules explained one by one, from novelty and claims to Rule 71(3), with deadlines, fees and Enlarged Board case law.

• Types of patent searches, and which one you need

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• Patentability search: how to check novelty before you file

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• Freedom-to-operate search in the US and Europe

  In-force claims only, legal status checks at the USPTO, EPO and UPC, FTO opinions after Halo, and design-arounds.

• Invalidity search: prior art to challenge a patent

  IPR, PGR, EPO opposition and UPC revocation deadlines, prior art dates, standards documents and claim charts.

• Patent landscape analysis, step by step

  Building a CPC and keyword dataset, cleaning families and names, the metrics that matter and the 18-month publication lag.

• How to search Espacenet

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• Google Patents search guide

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• The Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC), explained

  How CPC symbols are built, CPC against IPC, the Y section, how to find the right class and how to search it in each database.

• Patent search Boolean operators and search strings

  Boolean, proximity and truncation syntax compared across Patent Public Search, Espacenet, Google Patents and The Lens, with semantic search for contrast.

• The PCT application: timeline, fees and national phase

  The international phase month by month, receiving Office and ISA fees in CHF, USD and EUR, national phase deadlines by office, and a deadline calculator.

• How much does a patent cost?

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• How long does a patent last?

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• Can AI write a patent application?

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