The European Patent Office (EPO) has announced a relevant revision of the PACE programme, the mechanism that enables accelerated prosecution of European patent applications.
The change, which will enter into force on 1 February 2026, is a response to the sustained improvement in the timelines for issuing the European search report and has clear practical implications for applicants and prosecution strategies.
What is the PACE programme?
The PACE (Programme for Accelerated Prosecution of European Patent Applications) enables applicants to accelerate the grant procedure before the EPO, with the aim of obtaining key communications for the applicant (such as the communication of intention to grant under Rule 71(3) EPC) within reduced timeframes.
Until now, the programme allowed acceleration to be requested both in the search phase and the examination phase. This is precisely what is changing.
Reason for the change: a faster European search
The EPO justifies this revision on the basis of significant and sustained improvements in its processing times in the search phase.
In 2024, following the EPO’s usual practice in recent years, the mean time to issue the European search report was five and a half months.
As a consequence, the EPO considers that it is no longer necessary to maintain PACE acceleration in the search phase, allowing resources to be focused where the impact is greater: examination.
What exactly changes from 1 February 2026?
From that date, it will no longer be possible to request acceleration of the search, and the PACE programme will be applicable only to the examination phase.
Key conditions of PACE programme
This revision maintains, with some nuances, the essential rules of the programme:
i) The PACE request must be filed only once per application;
ii) The request for acceleration is not published and is excluded from file inspection (confidential); and
iii) The EPO undertakes, where possible, to:
- issue the next office action within approximately three months, and
- maintain that pace for subsequent communications, while the application remains under the PACE programme.
Grounds for exclusion from the programme
An application may be removed from the PACE programme, among other cases:
- if the PACE request is withdrawn,
- if an extension of time limits for reply is requested,
- if the patent application is withdrawn, refused or deemed withdrawn by the EPO, or
- if renewal fees are not paid within the due period.
In these cases, it is not possible to reactivate PACE for that patent application.
Euro-PCT and other acceleration routes
For Euro-PCT international patent applications, when the EPO has already previously prepared an International Search Report for the invention, applicants may request acceleration of the examination phase at strategic moments, for example:
- upon entry into the European phase, or
- together with the response to the written opinion issued by the EPO in its International Search Report.
In addition, the EPO maintains other routes for accelerated processing, including the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) programme, which allows applicants to leverage favourable decisions from other patent offices to expedite grant.
Strategic key: accelerate when it truly adds value
This revision reinforces a fundamental idea: accelerating the prosecution of a patent application is not an automatic or generalised process, but a strategic tool. Its greatest utility lies in those cases where interaction with the EPO can make the difference in obtaining grant.
At ABG Intellectual Property, we analyse on a case-by-case basis when, how and why to request PACE, integrating the decision into a global strategy that considers timelines, markets, competition and business objectives.
If you want to delve deeper into how timelines and strategic prosecution can influence patent protection, you can read our article: Manipulating time in patent prosecution.
Because accelerating is not just about going faster: it is about getting there sooner, with the right strategy.
