PACE, Colour & Prior Art: Inside the EPO’s 2026 Guidelines Update

Every year, the European Patent Office (EPO) updates their Guidelines for Examination, which act as the EPO’s effective rulebook during grant and opposition proceedings. The latest update for 2026 is due to come into effect on the 1st of April. The Guidelines are very long (about 1000 pages), and so we’ve summarised a few of the key headline changes below.  

Changes to PACE

If an applicant would like to request accelerated search and examination, this must be requested under the EPO’s “PACE” program. Whereas, previously, PACE could be requested separately for both the search and examination stages, it can now only be requested for examination, and this recent change is reflected in the new Guidelines. 

Applicants wishing to accelerate prosecution should note that, as European search reports tend to be issued quite consistently quickly anyway, this change should not be significantly detrimental to your plans. Furthermore, it is possible to accelerate prosecution in other ways aside from using PACE (for example, by waiving certain communications from the EPO). Please do not hesitate to speak to any of our patent attorneys if you would like further advice.

Coloured drawings

Applicants have been allowed to file colour drawings at the EPO since October 2025, and this is reflected in the new Guidelines update. The Guidelines explain that amended or corrected drawings can only contain colour to the same extent as the original drawings. Thus, applicants should be wary of adding colour to drawings after an application has been filed, as this may be found to add subject matter to the application, which is not allowed under the European Patent Convention. 

Products put on the market before the filing date 

Sometimes, it may be the case that a relevant product is put on the market before the filing date of a European patent application. In other jurisdictions, such products would be considered prior art. However, according to previous EPO practice, if it was not possible to reproduce the product before the filing date (because its internal structure could not be analysed before that date), then the entire product and all its features were not considered prior art.

However, the decision G1/23 of the EPO’s Enlarged Board of Appeal, issued in July 2025, has changed this. Now, all the analysable features of a product put on the market before the filing date become prior art, even if the product as a whole could not have been reproduced before the filing date. This change in case law is reflected in the new Guidelines, bringing EPO practice more in line with other patent offices on this issue.

Thus, it is even more essential now that you approach your patent attorney well before any possible publication/marketing/sales of a new product that may have patentable features.

Claim interpretation 

Historically, case law at the EPO has been unclear on whether and to what extent the description and drawings are to be taken into account when interpreting the claims during an analysis of novelty and/or inventive step. 

Decision G1/24 of the Enlarged Board, issued in June 2025, clarified that the description and drawings are always to be at least consulted. The update to the Guidelines reflects this change in case law, and further clarifies what it means in practice: if a term in a claim can be understood on its own, then the description and drawings can only be used to provide a different definition to that term if that different definition is broader, not if it is more restrictive.

To see all the upcoming changes to the Guidelines, see this link (warning: this is a link to a 1118 page PDF). If you would like to speak to a member of our patent team regarding the above matters or any other issue, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us.