The European Patent Office (EPO) was established in 1973 according to the European Patent Convention. The European Special Bureau adopts a unified procedure to examine patent applications, and the application language can be any of the three official languages (English, French and German), which provides invention protection for European and global inventors, companies and researchers in the European market with a population of more than 600 million.
The membership of the European Patent Organization has increased from 7 founding countries of 1973 to 38, including all 28 member States of the European Union, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey and most Balkan countries. From March 20 15, Morocco became the first non-European country to recognize European patents. At present, the European patent office can provide patent protection for an application in as many as 4 1 countries.
The European Bureau is the second largest international public service organization in Europe, with 7,000 employees from more than 30 countries (4,250 of whom are professional engineers who can use three working languages), five office addresses in four European countries and its headquarters in Munich.
The European Agency receives and processes about 274,000 patent applications every year. High-quality products and services (only 64,600 applications were authorized in 2065, 438+04) 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 25 EU member countries), which is expected to be implemented from 20 16.
The European Bureau of Specialization provides free technical information, more than 90 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.
EU patent (or Community patent or European Community patent), usually called EU patent, is a patent system established in the EU. Its establishment will bring great convenience to patent applicants.
Now, the European Parliament has approved the law to create a "unified patent". This 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 the United Kingdom.
In order to obtain a unified patent, the applicant can file and handle European patents in the usual way. After being authorized, the applicant can request the European Patent Office (EPO) to grant a unified patent, without choosing the specific country where the patent takes effect among 25 countries. During the transition period of 12, a complete translation of the patent specification is required when applying for a unified patent. Considering that English is the main 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 official language of the European Union. At present, the general requirement is to translate European patent claims into two languages, and the complete translation of patent specifications is a new requirement.
In addition, European patents may take effect in Spain and Italy respectively, similar to the practice of EPC signatories who are not members of the European Union, 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 prohibited.
For the obligee who lives in one of the above 25 countries or has a business place in these 25 countries, the national laws of his own country can determine the ownership, patent distribution and other matters. When the obligee does not live in any of these 25 countries, these formal matters will be decided by German law. Of course, substantive issues such as patentability and infringement will be decided by the new regulations.