1, apply. Applicants can apply to the European Patent Office in one of the three official languages: English, French and German. The contents included in the application documents shall be consistent with the patent application documents of China, generally including the specification, claims, abstract and drawings. If an application is filed in Europe through the Paris Convention within 12 months from the filing date of the earlier application in China, and China's priority is claimed, a certificate of priority is required. After that, the European Bureau will issue a notice, and within one month from the date of the notice, the applicant can submit the amendment of the claim, whether it has been amended or not, but this time limit cannot be extended.
2. Search of the European Patent Office. The European Patent Office usually searches the existing technical documents related to the patentability of the application and informs the European patent lawyers of the search results. When the applicant receives this search report, it is usually necessary to evaluate the patentability and the possibility of obtaining authorization of his invention according to the search results.
3. Publish the patent application. The European Patent Office will publish the patent application within 18 months from the priority date (application date), and hopes to make a search report before publication, so that the applicant can make a choice whether to continue the application procedure. However, due to the large number of patent applications in Europe, more and more search reports are issued after publication.
4. Make a request for substantive examination and conduct substantive examination. The applicant shall, at the same time of filing the application or within 6 months from the date of publication of the retrieval report of the European Patent Office, make a request for substantive examination, designate a specific member state from among the European member States, and pay the examination fee and designation fee. If the transfer fee is paid seven times, all parties to the European Patent Treaty can transfer it, but the transfer fee of the extension country needs to be paid separately.
After the substantive examination is put forward, it enters the actual examination procedure, and usually receives the examination opinions of the European Special Bureau within 1 ~ 3 years after the actual examination is put forward. When replying to the review opinions, the application documents are usually refuted or modified according to the examiner's opinions. However, when the defense fails to reject the objection, the applicant will have the opportunity to participate in the "oral hearing procedure" held in the European Bureau of Experts, and the applicant can personally present his opinions to the three members of the European Bureau who handle the case. When the application is rejected at the oral hearing stage, the applicant also has the right to appeal to the Appeal Committee of the European Bureau.
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 and allow this application to enter the authorization procedure, or modify the text or claim according to his own wishes. At the same time (implemented after July 1 2002), pay the authorization fee and submit the other two language translations of the statement. In addition, it is necessary to check whether the translation of the priority certificate has been submitted. After the above work is completed, the European patent is officially authorized and a certificate of authorization is issued.
6. Valid in European Member States. 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. Therefore, if the applicant needs to take effect in multiple countries, it needs to prepare more fees.
After completing the work that takes effect in different countries, the applicant has patents in different countries and is independent of each other, and each item needs to pay an annual fee.