How an EU design patent is filed

The EU design patent application process.

1.Preparation of application documents 2Filing an application with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) 3

Acceptance (Notice of Acceptance by the European Union Intellectual Property Office) 4Examination (formal examination by the EUIPO of the patent, etc., in terms of formatting) 5Authorization (if the application meets the legal requirements, the EUIPO issues the EU Design Certificate and publishes the authorization).

For details, please refer to the Guidelines for Filing an EU Design Patent.

1) Because the application for an international patent from China to a foreign country needs to be filed by the national ** agency on behalf of the applicant, so as to ensure that the applicant obtains the maximum value of intellectual property rights.

2) After the application materials are ready, the ** institution files the application with the European Union Design Patent Office, which can be filed with the European Patent Office in one of the three official languages: English, French and German.

3) If the design has priority, it is necessary to submit a priority certificate.

4) The European Patent Office does not conduct a search for prior art documents related to patentability, so a patent certificate can be obtained even if the EU design application is not novel.

Note: The EU design patent is granted within a short time, usually within one week, and the protection can be formed as soon as possible.

The process of applying for an EU design patent is as follows:

1) Prepare materials;

2) Submission of materials;

3) Patent Examination;

4) Patent Publications;

5) Postponement of publication (if the applicant is unwilling to publish the design immediately, he or she can request postponement of publication);

6) Authorization to issue certificates.

1. The following materials are required to apply for an EU design patent:

1) Applicant's identification document;

2) The product information to be registered for the patent and **;

3) Patent category, the EU patent category is the same as China's, or the name of the product;

2. The process of applying for an EU design patent is as follows:

1) Prepare materials;

2) Submission of materials;

3) Patent Examination;

4) Patent Publications;

5) Postponement of publication (if the applicant is unwilling to publish the design immediately, he or she can request postponement of publication);

6) Authorization to issue certificates.

The applicant should clearly and completely describe the content of the invention for which patent protection is sought in the application documents to the extent that it can be realized by ordinary professionals in the same technical field. The description may have drawings, and the claims determine the scope of patent protection on the basis of the description and its drawings. The description and its drawings can interpret the claims.

Once the application is filed, the amendment of the application documents shall not exceed the scope of the description of the original patent application documents; The claims are also not allowed to be expanded; No more examples can be cited; Even if it is the result of the expansion of the line pattern and the elimination of certain technical features. Unless such expansion is clearly based on the contents of the original specification. The application documents should also pay attention to the unitary nature of the application, i.e., an application can only contain one invention.

If more than two inventions are included, they are required to be combined with each other within a single inventive idea. RequestsRequests are developed uniformly by the European Patent Office**. The applicant should fill in the instructions and sign it.

If the person is entrusted, it may be signed by the person. When the applicant is a legal person, it is also necessary to clarify the identity of the signatory. The application documents should be made in triplicate.

If it is submitted through the channels of a Member State, it will be submitted in quadruplicate. In addition, special attention should be paid to filling in the following information clearly:

Indicate the name of the inventor, and if the applicant is not the inventor or the only inventor, a special ** should be filled in. If the name of the inventor is not indicated, the application may be supplemented within 16 months from the filing date or priority date, and if the application is not made within the time limit, the application shall be deemed to be withdrawn. The name of the inventor is indicated in the published European patent application, the European patent document and the European Patent Register.

In the case of a claim for priority, the applicant or his successor, claiming priority in his first national application, shall do so at the time of filing and subject to the following conditions: athe application was accepted in accordance with the provisions of the European Patent Convention and the filing date was fixed; b.

The application claiming priority is filed within 12 months from the filing date of the first application.

The priority is an invention patent, utility model, utility certificate or author's certificate, and the same content is claimed.

The application is made in a country that is in or designates a member state of the Paris Convention. If the earlier application is filed in or against a member state of the European Patent Convention, that country can still be designated in the later application, and the earlier application can likewise form the basis for claiming priority in another European patent application.

The following is about the difference between a patent from the European Union and a U.S. design patent.

U.S. Design Patent.

1. The protection area is different.

Patents are territorial in nature and are protected only in the country in which they are filed. The biggest difference between EU and US design patents is that they are protected in different regions: US design patents are only protected in the United States; EU design patents are protected in the 28 member states of the European Union.

The 28 member states of the European Union are: France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Finland, Sweden, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania and Croatia.

2. The review system and authorization time are different.

EU design patents are subject to formal examination, while US design patents are subject to stricter examination and substantive examination. Therefore, there is a big difference in the authorization time between the two: the authorization time of the EU design patent is 2-4 weeks, while the authorization time of the US design patent takes about a year.

3. The term of protection is different.

The term of protection of an EU design patent is longer, 25 years from the filing date; The term of protection for a U.S. design patent is 15 years from the date of grant.

For more information about patents, please consult Gaowo. As a professional overseas intellectual property organization, Gaowo's international department currently provides foreign-related services for nearly 1,000 domestic firms. It has reached partnerships with nearly 1,000 law firms in more than 160 countries around the world, and has abundant resources to meet the needs of clients for all aspects of intellectual property services.

How to search for EU design patents? What are the benefits of searching for an EU design patent? Recently, according to the first financial report, the European Union and Japan applied for the United States to enter the United States for intellectual property consultations on China, and the European Union and Japan asked to join Trump's request for consultation at the WTO on China's discriminatory technology licensing requirements.

Previously, on March 23, the United States submitted a request for consultation to China under the WTO dispute settlement mechanism, alleging that China's measures regarding technology licensing conditions did not comply with the relevant provisions of the Agreement on Intellectual Property Rights Related to ** (TRIPS).

01 How to search for EU design patents?

1。Go to the European Patent Search**.

2。Select Adanced Search and select Designs after entering the page below. After that, it is selected according to the demand, generally according to the product name or the applicant.

4。Click search to enter.

5。Just select the patent you want to see and click on it, if you know the application number or the applicant's method is the same as above.

02 What are the benefits of searching for an EU design patent?

Through the search of patent literature, enterprises or inventors can obtain the following assistance: to understand the latest developments in scientific research in a certain field at home and abroad, so as to avoid duplication of investment and research, improve the starting point of scientific research, and inspire research ideas;

Understand the patent technology reserve and legal status of peers or competitors to avoid infringing on the patents of others;

Preliminary determination of whether the invention to be patented has the prospect of granting patent rights, so as to help enterprises or inventors decide whether to file a patent application;

Understand the advanced degree of a certain technology content, the patent protection status, and the patent protection of similar technologies, so as to judge the value of the technology, and take the initiative in the negotiation of technology transfer or licensing;

Understand the novelty and inventive step of a patent, provide information for judging the validity of the patent right, and other useful information.

1. Prepare the documents used in the application;

2. Submit relevant applications to the German Patent and Trademark Office;

3. Issue a notice of acceptance;

4. Review the application;

5. If the application meets the relevant requirements of the law, the German Patent and Trademark Office will grant the German design to the application and publish the authorization.

Legal Analysis: Four Application Conditions:1

The first condition is that the design for which the patent is to be applied must be newly created, that is, it must be novel. There is no need to grant a patent for something that is repetitive, for example, if a toy itself is blue, and as a result, another person creates an identical toy, but changes it to yellow, which is meaningless, so it is impossible to obtain a patent under this design, and a new toy must be invented, which is completely different from before. This novelty is one of the hard criteria, and if it is not novel enough, it is absolutely impossible to obtain a patent.

2.The second condition is that the design must be self-created and cannot be copied. Since patents are the protection of intellectual achievements, the intellectual achievements must be created by individuals.

Of course, if it is co-created by a company, it is fine, but it must not be plagiarized from the previous work or plagiarized the work of others, if you encounter this kind of behavior, not only will the patent not be granted, but you may also be accused of infringement. 3.The third condition is a condition of practicality.

Since the design must be applied to the product for production, the design must be able to be produced. If it is only a castle in the air, with novelty and inventiveness, but there is no way to apply it, there is no significance in granting a patent. 4.

The fourth condition is a more additional condition. Since the design is applied to the exterior of the product, it should leave a sense of beauty in the minds of the general public, and there is no way to grant a patent if it is too ugly or subverts people's perception.

Legal basis: Patent Law of the People's Republic of China Article 26 Where an application for a patent for invention or utility model is made, the request, the description and its abstract and claims shall be submitted. The request shall state the name of the invention or utility model, the name of the inventor, the name and address of the applicant, and other matters.

The description shall give a clear and complete description of the invention or utility model, which shall be subject to the realization of it by a person skilled in the art to which it belongs; Where necessary, drawings should be available. The abstract shall briefly describe the technical points of the invention or utility model. The claims shall be based on the description and clearly and concisely define the scope of the claimed patent protection.

For inventions and creations that rely on genetic resources, the applicant shall indicate in the patent application documents the direct and original nature of the genetic resources; If the applicant is unable to explain the original **, the reasons shall be stated.