According to the paper, the purpose of the consultation is to explain the effect on the Patents Act of the EPC, which was agreed in November 2000, and also to seek views on proposed changes.
The main amendments proposed by the Patent Office refer to the Patents Act's provisions regarding the conditions for and exceptions to patentability and the definition of novelty, aiming to bring them in line with the EPC's provisions.
The consultation paper also sets out proposals not related to the implementation of the EPC, but designed to generally update and modernise our patent system, such as changes to the conditions and fees for filing a patent application in the UK.
The Patent Office invites comments from all interested parties and all responses should be submitted by 21st February 2003.
The consultation document is available as a 57-page PDF from:
www.patent.gov.uk/about/consultations/patact/patact.pdf
The European Patent Convention 2002 can be found at:
www.european-patent-office.org/legal/epc/e/contents.html