The documents to be submitted for application are basically the same as those submitted for patent application in China, generally including patent specification, claims, patent abstract and drawings. After that, the European Patent Office will issue a notice, and within one month from the date of the notice, the applicant can modify the patent, but the time limit cannot be extended. It should be noted that the official languages of the European Patent Office are English, French and German, and the application documents submitted by the applicant must be written in one of these three languages.
2. Patent retrieval
Under normal circumstances, the European Patent Office will search the technical documents related to the patent application, and the lawyer of the European Patent Office will be informed of the search results, and the lawyer will forward the search report to the applicant, who can judge the patentability of his invention and the possibility of successful authorization according to the search results.
3. Publish the patent application
The European Patent Office will publish the patent application within 18 months from the date of application submission. Before the application is published, the applicant can come to Xi 'an according to the results of the search report and decide whether to continue the application procedure. However, sometimes due to the large number of European patent applications, it is more likely to issue a search report after the application is published.
4. Request and conduct substantive examination.
The applicant shall submit a request for substantive examination at the same time as the application is filed or within 6 months from the date when the retrieval report is published by the European Patent Office. It is also necessary to designate a specific member state among the European member States and pay the examination fee and the designation fee. If all the contracting States of the European Patent Treaty are to be designated, seven designation fees need to be paid, but the designation fee for the extension country still needs to be paid separately.
After the substantive review is put forward, it will enter the actual review procedure, and the review opinions of the Bureau of Europe will be received within 1 ~ 3 years after the actual review is put forward. In view of the review opinions, it is necessary to refute or modify the application documents according to the examiner's opinions.
5. European patent authorization
After approval, the European Bureau will issue a copy of the authorization notice. The applicant chooses to agree to the authorization text, allowing this application to enter the authorization procedure. At the same time, you need to pay the authorization fee and submit the translation of the claim in the other two languages. After the above work is completed, the European patent will be officially authorized and a certificate of authorization will be issued.
6, the patent takes effect
Generally, after receiving the authorization notice, the applicant must decide to choose the effective country from the list of designated countries and inform the European Patent Office in which countries the patent will take effect. According to the regulations of each effective country, it is generally necessary to translate all the contents of this European patent into the language of that country and submit it to the effective country so that this European patent can take effect in that country. 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.