What do you need to know about the European Patent Office before applying for a European patent?

What do you need to know about the European Patent Office before applying for a European patent? With the development of economic globalization, not only the globalization of the economic field, but also the globalization of patented technology, so it is necessary to form a regional organization to apply for patents, and the European Patent Office is one of them. What do you need to know about the European Patent Office before applying for a European patent?

We may be more aware of domestic patent applications, but when it comes to foreign patent applications, we may not know much about them. In fact, the EPO patent application that we usually talk about is the so-called European patent application; It is important to be clear about the importance of a European patent application, as it is possible for a large number of patent owners to apply for patents in multiple countries and is protected in multiple countries. The European Patent Office (EPO) is a leading organization established on October 7, 1977 under the European Patent Convention.

Its main function is to be responsible for the patent prosecution in the European region. In 2017, China ranked among the top five filing countries before the European Patent Office for the first time; The European Patent Office is structured into five levels, namely Office, Headquarters, Departments, Divisions and Sections. The bureau has 1 director and 5 deputy directors.

There are a total of five headquarters-level institutions, and each deputy director is also the first leader of a headquarters. A European patent application can designate multiple countries for protection. A European patent may have the same effect as a national patent in any one or all member states.

In this case, the procedure of filing a separate patent application in multiple countries can be simplified, saving costs and facilitating the applicant; European patents are examined and granted in accordance with uniform laws. It will not cause different consequences due to the different procedures and examination requirements of the patent laws of various countries, and give applicants a sense of security; In fact, the European Patent Office is one of the strongest and most modern patent offices in the world, with the world's most complete patent literature resources, so it is a good way for patentees to refer to relevant patent documents, through patent searches, they can understand the advantages and disadvantages of their own patents, and comprehensively consider providing the best patent reference for patentees to search for patents; With the formation of relevant international treaty organizations, patentees can choose more national patent applications, such as PCT applications. What do I need to know before applying for a European patent?

If you want to apply for a European patent, please contact our **customer service, or call Bajie intellectual property national free service**, we have many years of professional intellectual property experience, professional business team and the concept of wholeheartedly serving customers, can help you apply smoothly.

The conditions for granting a European patent application are basically the same as those for a Chinese patent application. But the application process is different from that of Chinese patents. Below we will walk you through the steps of the European patent application process.

1. Apply for a patent.

Apply for a patent with the European Patent Office. The languages are (English, French, German). The content of the patent application documents is consistent with the Chinese patent application documents, including:

Description, claims, abstract and abstract drawings. If the application is filed through the Paris Convention, the application shall be filed with Europe within 12 months from the date of filing the application in China, and China shall be required to grant priority and submit priority documents.

II. Search by the European Patent Office.

The European Patent Office usually searches for prior art documents related to the patentability of the application and, after the search, notifies the European patent** owner of the search results. When a patent applicant receives this search report, it is usually necessary to evaluate the patentability and grant of the invention based on the content of the search.

3. Announcement of patent application.

The European Patent Office will publish the results of the patent application within 18 months from the filing date and publish the search report on offline** prior to publication, so that the applicant can choose whether to proceed with the application.

Frequently Asked Questions: Patent Application Process and Fees:

4. Request for substantive examination.

The applicant shall file an application for substantive examination within six months from the filing date or from the date of publication of the search report before the European Patent Office. At the same time, specific member states are identified, and fixed membership and examination fees are paid. Substantive examination proceedings are entered after the substantive closed examination is filed, and an office action is usually received from the EPO within 1 to 3 years after the substantive examination is filed.

5. European patent grant.

After the examination is passed, the EPO will issue a notice of grant. The applicant chooses to agree to the authorization document and is allowed to proceed to the authorization stage. or modify the text and claims.

6. Patent validity.

In general, upon receipt of the notification of grant, the applicant must select the country in which the patent is valid in the list of countries identified and notify the European Patent Office to select the country of effect. According to the regulations of each country, the entire contents of this patent need to be translated into the language of the country in which the patent is valid and submitted to that country.

Precautions. In general, European member states require that the translation be completed within three months of the issuance of the declaration of authorization and take effect in all countries.

The above is the introduction of intellectual property for everyone, what is the process of applying for a patent in Europe? related questions. If you have any other questions, please feel free to log in to the intellectual property rights for consultation and understanding.

International Patent Application Patent Application Patent Application Process.

European Patent Application Process:

1) Submit an application.

The EPO recognizes the priority of 12 months, which can be extended for a further 2 months if there is a reasonable reason for doing so.

The application documents include the request for grant, description of the invention, claims, drawings (if any), abstract, priority document (if any), grant document (if any), which can be prepared in any language, but not in the official language of the EPO (English, French, German) need to be subsequently submitted for translation into one of the above three languages.

2) Formal examination.

The EPO checks the completeness of the application documents, and the application of the qualified source will be confirmed on the filing date.

3) Mandatory search.

The EPO will conduct an ex officio search to see if the application is novel and inventive. After the search is completed, the EPO will prepare a search report and provide a preliminary office action, which will be handed over to the applicant.

4) Disclosure of applications.

Applications and search reports will normally be published 18 months from the filing date, including the priority date.

The applicant shall decide whether or not to request substantive examination within six months after publication, and within that period, the applicant shall also pay the prescribed designation, extension and validation fees.

From the date of publication of the application, the invention in the European patent application will be granted provisional protection in the designated country Extension country The country of effect, but some countries may require a translation of the claims to be filed with their national patent office, and temporary protection can only be granted after the translation is published. Each country may not provide less temporary protection than that afforded to a patent application published in its own country.

5) Substantive examination and authorization.

Upon receipt of the application for substantive examination, the EPO will examine whether the application meets the conditions for grant. If it is determined that the conditions for grant are met, and the applicant has paid the grant and publication fees, the EPO will issue a decision on grant and publish it in the EPR Gazette.

If the applicant is not satisfied with the EPO's decision to reject the authorization, he or she may appeal to the EPO Appeal Board. If it is found that there are significant procedural flaws in the appeal process or on other specific grounds in accordance with the law, the parties may request a review by the Extended Appeal Board.

Chinese applicants can request EPO accelerated examination under the IP5 PPH Project, which can be found in the China National Intellectual Property Office (CNIPA) Guidelines.

6) Validity. After the decision to grant is published, in general, the granted European patent must be validated in the designated country, the extension country, and the effective country within the prescribed time limit. Depending on the domestic laws of each country, the applicant may be required to pay the necessary fees, submit a statement of state or a translated version of the claims, etc., to carry out the validation procedure.

However, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Monaco, Liechtenstein, Ireland and Albania are no longer required to comply with domestic procedures, and the granting of European patents automatically becomes valid in these countries.

The annual fee is to be paid annually from the 3rd year onwards of the filing date.

2.Time period

1)About one month after the application is filed, the EPO will issue a notification of acceptance.

2) It takes 3-5 years for the entire European patent to be granted from application to grant.

3) The validity period of the granted patent is 20 years from the filing date.

There are two main ways in which patents can be cited by the EPO:

1.Citing other patents in patent texts: When citing other patents in patent texts, you need to indicate the document number, country, and inventor of the cited patents.

For example: "As shown in patent document ep1234567, the present invention provides a new type of ......."”

2.Citing other patents in patent application documents: When citing other patents in patent application documents, you need to indicate the document number, country and inventor of the cited patent, and list the cited patent documents in the literature list.

For example: "The present invention provides a novel ......, as shown in patent document ep1234567."pre-chain". In the literature list, you need to indicate the document number, country, inventor, invention title, publication date and other information.

The above is the basic way for the European Patent Office to cite patents, and the specific operation needs to be handled according to the actual situation.