The European patent system is the birthplace of the world patent system. The EPC system has developed from the initial eight member countries to the present 32 member countries. Although five countries are not members of EPC, they all recognize the patents granted by EPC. The European Patent Organization established by EPC is the European Patent Office and the Administrative Committee, which is responsible for granting European patents, and the Administrative Committee is responsible for supervising the work of the European Patent Office. Headquartered in Munich, Germany, the European Patent Office is fully responsible for the retrieval, examination and authorization of European patents. And set up a branch in The Hague, the Netherlands, which is mainly responsible for retrieval business. The official working languages of the European Patent Office are English, German and French, and European patent applications must use one of these languages. Member countries of European Patent EPC: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Slovakia. Expanding countries: Albania, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Croatia.
Note: 1, Liechtenstein and Switzerland together count as one name; 2. The extension country itself cannot be stipulated in the European patent application, but the domestic law of each country stipulates that an authorized European patent can be "extended" to that country. Iii. Characteristics of European patents 1, and the validity period of European patents is 20 years from the date of filing.
When submitting the application, you must make a search request and pay the search fee.
3. For the European patent application filed through the Paris Convention, the applicant shall, within 6 months from the date of publication of the retrieval report of the European Patent Office, make a request for substantive examination, and at the same time, designate specific member States from among the European member States, and pay the examination fee and designation fee. For the European patent application submitted through PCT, the applicant shall submit the European patent application with substantive examination request, and at the same time designate a specific member state from among the European member States, and pay the examination fee and designation fee.
Generally speaking, European member states require that the translation work be completed within three months from the announcement of authorization, and it will take effect in all countries. If the applicant fails to submit the required translation within the specified time limit, the applicant will lose his patent right in that country. 4. The document 1 required for applying for a European patent and the application form shall indicate the name and address of the inventor and the applicant (if the applicant is a legal person, it shall also include the name of the legal representative), the date of submission, the name of the invention and the priority date (if priority is claimed);
2. Description includes: name of invention, description of drawings, detailed description of invention and claims; When necessary, there should be attached drawings; Abstract;
3. Power of attorney
4. Where priority is claimed, priority documents shall be submitted, including the certified copy of the earlier application and its translation. V. European Patent Procedures and Approaches There are basically four ways to obtain patent protection in European countries:
1) directly apply for domestic procedures: directly apply for registration to each EU member state that is required to provide patent protection;
2) Directly apply the procedures of the European Patent Office: apply for single registration in the European Patent Office; Once it has obtained the European patent certification, it will confirm the patent to each member country that is required to provide patent protection;
3) Combination of domestic procedures and PCT patent application procedures (patent cooperation treaty): firstly, apply to PCT patent application organization for unified registration, and then confirm the patent to each member country requesting patent protection within 30 months after the priority date;
4) Combination of European patent procedure and patent cooperation treaty procedure: firstly, apply to the Patent Cooperation Treaty Organization for unified registration, enter the European Patent Office procedure within 365,438+0 months after the priority date, and confirm the patent to each member country that needs patent protection after being certified by the European Patent Office.
It should be pointed out that the European patent agent is only authorized to represent the applications of non-EU residents in the European Patent Office. Similarly, only an agency authorized by the domestic patent office of a country can represent foreigners' applications in their respective national patent offices. 1. 1 directly apply domestic procedures and apply for registration directly to each EU member state whose patent needs to be protected. This method is only feasible if the patent only needs to be protected in a limited number of countries (at most two or three countries). 1.2 direct application of the procedures of the European Patent Office The European Patent Treaty provides many conveniences for applying for European patents through a single procedure, including:
—— Submit a single patent application in the Patent Office in one language (applicants from non-EPO countries must register in the European Patent Office, and the language must be one of English, French or German).
-The retrieval report must make preliminary comments on substantive issues, that is, the Extended European Investigation Report (EESR). With the consent of the applicant, the European application (or directly applicable European patent application) will be published together with the search report within 18 months from the priority date.
-Within 6 months from the date of publication of the search report, the applicant needs to confirm whether he is willing to continue the substantive examination of the patent. The substantive examination is conducted by a special examination department, which is composed of three qualified technical experts and is also a law.
Legal expert. The examining department examines whether the application complies with the European Patent Treaty, especially whether the invention has been clearly and fully expounded (Articles 83 and 84 of the European Patent Treaty); According to novelty, creativity and industrial applicability, whether the application can be granted a patent (Articles 52, 54, 56 and 57 of the European Patent Treaty). If the examination department considers that the application cannot meet the requirements of the European Patent Treaty, the applicant will receive a written notice and be asked to fill in his own opinions when necessary, indicating whether he is willing to make necessary amendments to the application to meet the requirements of the European Patent Treaty (Article 96, paragraph 2, and Article 86, paragraph 3, of the European Patent Treaty). When the examination department considers that the application meets the requirements of the European Patent Treaty, the examination department will grant the European patent to the EPO Contracting State that needs patent protection (if it is not specified, all Contracting States shall be deemed as designated), otherwise, the examination department will decide to reject the application (Article 97, paragraphs 1 and 2 of the European Patent Treaty). The applicant may request the Reexamination Board of the European Patent Office to review the unfavorable decision (article 107 of the European Patent Treaty).
—— Published European patent applications enjoy temporary protection, at least not less than the equivalent protection enjoyed by domestic patent applications of contracting States (Article 67 of the European Patent Treaty). Authorized European patents enjoy the same rights granted by each patent to its own patent by the contracting state (Article 64, paragraph 1 of the European Patent Treaty). However, European patentees do not enjoy a right. Once certified by the European Patent Office, the patent application must be confirmed in the patent offices of countries providing patent protection, and the patentee should provide translations of patent documents in the official languages of these countries. A single European patent has thus become a group of compulsory and revocable domestic patents that are basically independent of each other. In addition, the European Patent Treaty gives a third party the right to file an objection procedure within nine months after the patent is granted (article 102, paragraphs 1 3 and article 123, paragraph 3 of the European Patent Treaty). European patent applications can be filed by legal persons and natural persons without patent agents (Article 58 of the European Patent Treaty). If the applicant has no domicile or principal place of business in the State Party of the European Patent Office, any other procedure of the applicant in the European Patent Office must be represented by a qualified European patent agent (Article 9 1, Paragraph 1, Item A, Article 133, Paragraph 2 of the European Patent Treaty).
-The unified application procedure of the European Patent Office has obvious advantages over the direct application of domestic procedures. When a patent seeks protection from three or more contracting States, the procedure is simpler and the cost is lower. The more countries require patent protection, the more advantages it has over domestic procedures to directly apply the procedures of the European Patent Office. Although the procedure of directly applying to the European Patent Office simplifies the procedure of seeking patent protection in European countries, its scope of application is still limited. Once the beneficiary inventor wants to seek patent protection in both Europe and countries outside Europe (such as Japan and the United States), this way is not appropriate. 1.3 the combination of domestic procedures and patent cooperation treaty procedures and the combination of European patent procedures and patent cooperation treaty procedures include the following steps:
-Any natural person or legal person, as long as he is a national or an expatriate of a State party to the Patent Cooperation Treaty, can file a single international application with the Patent Office (RO) in any language, which can be the International Patent Office (IB) in Geneva or the patent office of the country or region where the applicant is of nationality and residence.
—— The International Retrieval Department (ISA) submits an international retrieval report (ISR) and provides a written preliminary opinion on patentability (IPRP I). The choice of international retrieval department depends on the nationality and residence of the patent applicant. If the language of the international application is different from the official language of the selected international retrieval department, it must be equipped with an official language of the international retrieval department. International search reports and preliminary opinions on patentability should generally be sent to the applicant within 16 months after the priority date. International applications can be made in one of eight languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese and Russian. The international application together with the international search report (but excluding written opinions) will be published 18 months after the priority date.
-The optional international preliminary examination of patentability is conducted by the International Preliminary Inspection Bureau (IPEA), and the selection of IPEA depends on the nationality and residence of the applicant. If the International Bureau of Preliminary Inspection considers that the application cannot meet the requirements of the Patent Cooperation Treaty, the applicant will receive a written notice and be asked whether he is willing to modify the application to meet the opinions of the International Bureau of Preliminary Inspection (Article 69 1 of the Patent Cooperation Treaty). Six months after the initial inspection, the International Bureau shall publish the second international preliminary patent report (IPRPII). If no one requests international preliminary inspection, then IPRP No.1 will replace IPRP No.2 and publish it.
-Applying to the Patent Cooperation Treaty Organization does not necessarily lead to international patents. In fact, international patents do not exist. Within 30 months (or longer) after the priority date, the patent application must enter the domestic or regional procedures of the country or region where the patentee wishes to provide protection. After the patent application is examined by the authority of the relevant country or region (if required by domestic law), it is either certified or rejected.
-There are two possibilities for obtaining a European patent through the Patent Cooperation Treaty: entering the domestic procedure of the country requesting protection or entering the European examination stage, in which a new investigation will be conducted, unless the European Patent Office is also the International Retrieval Department (ISA) and before the patent is granted or rejected, it will be conducted as in the previous paragraphs 1. 1 and 1.2. V. PCT patent application and European patent application stage The period from the priority date to entering the European patent examination allowed by the European Patent Office is 365,438+0 months instead of 30 months.
-Prepare English, French and German translations;
—— Indicate the materials required for patent application registration in the EPO- 1200 form;
Pay the basic expenses in China;
—— Pay the prescribed fees within 6 months from the date of publication of the international search report;
-Other European search reports;
—— Submit the request and pay the inspection fee within 6 months after the publication of the international search report;
-Pay the renewal fee for the third year (generally, it should be paid at the beginning of the third year, such as two years after the international application for registration);
-Pay additional tax for each claim in ClaimNo. 1 1;
—— In some cases, if EPO can use the report results obtained in the international phase in the European phase, EPO can give the applicant a fee reduction. If the above actions are not completed within 3 1 month, the applicant can also delay the payment, and usually need to pay extra fees. 6. Once the patent confirmation letter in the European patent member countries is certified by the European patent and published in the European patent announcement, the European patent will obtain the legal effect of the domestic patent in each member country; Patents must be confirmed to all countries within three months. If the official language of the protected country is different from the language used in the application procedure, the applicant should submit the translation of the official language of the country to the patent offices of various countries, which greatly increases the cost of European patents. For example, a patent covering 5,000 to 9,000 words (i.e., 15 to 20 pages, 0.20 euros per page, and to be translated into six languages) will generate an additional fee of 6,000 to 10800 euros within three months from the date of patent authorization. According to the estimation of EPO of the European Patent Office, the translation cost will account for 39% of the total patent confirmed by eight European countries within ten years. The cost (and quality) of translation also varies from translator to translator. The more pages, the higher the cost. Translation fee is an important additional fee unique to the European patent system, which affects the applicant's seeking for European patent protection.