The European Patent Office (hereinafter referred to as the "European Patent Office") was established in 1973 according to the European Patent Convention. The European Bureau of Specialization adopts a unified procedure to examine patent applications, and the application language can be any of the three official languages (English, French and German), providing invention protection for inventors, companies and researchers in Europe and around the world in the European market with a population of over 6 million.
The number of member countries of the European Patent Organization has increased from 7 founding countries in 1973 to 38, including all 28 member countries of the European Union, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey and most Balkan countries. Since March 215, Morocco has become the first non-European country to recognize European patents. At present, the European Special Bureau can provide patent protection for an application in as many as 41 countries.
The European Bureau of Specialization is the second largest international public service organization in Europe, with 7, employees from more than 3 countries (4,25 of whom are professional engineers who can use three working languages), five office addresses in four European countries and headquarters in Munich.
The European Bureau receives and processes about 274 patent applications every year. High-quality products and services (only 64,6 applications were authorized in 214) have attracted users of patent systems all over the world. The European Union authorizes the European Patent Office to manage a single patent system (one patent can cover the scope of 25 EU member States), which is expected to be implemented from 216.
The European Bureau of Specialization provides free technical information, more than 9 million patent documents related to inventions and technological progress, and a free machine translation tool, Patent Translation, which provides translation between 32 languages including Chinese.
European Union patent (or Community patent or European Community Patent), generally referred to as EU Patent, is a patent system to be established in the EU. Its establishment will bring great convenience to patent applicants.
At present, the European Parliament has approved the regulations to create "unified patents". The unified patent will have the same effect in 25 of the 27 member States of the European Union. Spain and Italy refused to join the system.
the unified patent will take effect in these 25 countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden and Britain.
To obtain a unified patent, the applicant can file and handle the European patent in the usual way. After being authorized, the applicant can ask the European Patent Office (EPO) to grant a unified patent without choosing the specific country in which the patent takes effect among 25 countries. During the current 12-year transition period, a complete translation of the patent description is required when applying for a unified patent. Considering that English is the primary language, European patent applications accepted in Germany or France will be translated into English. With the help of the translation engine, European patent applications accepted in English can be translated into any of the official languages of the European Union. At present, the general requirement is to translate European patent claims into two languages, and complete patent specification translation is a new requirement.
In addition, European patents may take effect separately in Spain and Italy, similar to the practices of EPC signatories who are not EU members, such as Switzerland, Turkey and Norway.
the unified patent will take effect in 25 countries, and the renewal fee will be paid to EPO. The unified patent will be transferred or licensed in all member countries, which means that the opportunity for different licenses in different countries is banned.
for the right holders who live in one of the above 25 countries or have business premises in these 25 countries, the national laws of their own countries can determine things such as ownership and patent distribution. When the obligee does not live in one of these 25 countries, these formal matters will be decided by German law. Of course, substantive matters such as patentability and infringement will be decided by the new regulations.