Official Journal (OJ)

The European Commission publishes information in a journal known as the OJ. There are two main Official Journals, the Legislative Journal, where documents that have a legally binding effect are published, and the Notices Journal, in which information, notices, and draft EU legislation is published as well as judgments of the European Courts – the S series contains commercial notices, primarily invitations to tender. The Legislative journal is designated by the letter L, the Notices by the letter C. In Europe there is a standard format for citing OJs:

YEAR OJ-SERIES EDITION/PAGE,

thus 2005 OJ L 6/59 refers to the 6th legislative OJ published in 2005 at page 59. The European Patent Office also issues an Official Journal, which is now published electronically, though in the past it was a paper series published periodically with some special editions.

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