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[patatty30]

I have a question re:  determination of prior art under European laws.

In short, can the US Nonprov. publication of an applicant's own US Nonprov. application
be available as prior art as of its priority date ("effective filing date") as opposed to only its
publication date and then be used against a later filed PCT application by the applicant
with a different filing date that is before the publication date but after the 1st priority date?

Phrased another way, what is the effective prior art date in other non-US (i.e. European) countries
of a published patent application as applied against the applicant's PCT or foreign application?
Is it the publication date or the priority date?
(assume the PCT or foreign application missed the priority year deadline and its priority date is simply
its filing date)

[edennet0]

Generally spoken, at the Europen Patent Office the relevant date of a foreign patent application is the publication date, i.e. a non-prepublished application in another country cannot be used as prior art - as far as inventive step is concerned.

However, the latest amendment of the EPC introduced the concept that any prior application filed with the EPO but not published prior to the date of filing of a second application with the EPO  will constitute prior art for the purposes of novelty regardless whether or not there are designated countries in common (before this was only true for countries commonly designated). This applies, for the time being to prior applications filed with the EPO.

The law in various countries all over the world spans a great range of different regulations, so a general answer is not really possible.

Regards
edenneto